Give me your untranslatable words from 🇫🇷French or any other language! And grab your discounted language lessons with Lingoda using my link ➡ try.lingoda.com/RobWords25 or code ROBWORDS25 for $25, €20 or £15 off Flex, Sprint and Teams courses.
I am retired in a Spanish speaking country. Conocer vs. Saber, yes we do need two words for the verb "to know." And I agree forv word for the singular YOU. We could make "y'all" for plural you, but that really would be "all y'all" and that is cumbersome. Do work on that for us, Rob.
Hey there, french man here, just a quick add on "tu" & "vous", "tu" is also a singular word you cannot talk to a group of person with "tu", where "vous" is also a plural and use to call a group of person like "vous devriez visiter ce musée" could be told to both a single person with formally or a group a person without formal/informal distinction. Hope my explanation was clear! Thanks for talking about our language, you're doing great and I'm happily surprise with your accent! 😄
As a french person, i find your video to be very touching, in the way of how you present my langage in such a beautiful way. Of course I know these words, but your diction is very pleasant to hear ; it's like you're paying homage to it. I'm feeling a bit emotional to be honest. I might go flâner a bit, to think about it...
Frenchman here: your video juste made me realise how much pleasure and the simple fact of enjoying things is part of our culture and of our way of life. It never occurred to me that way, this is striking. Eye-opening, really. Man, I'll have to ponder over this.
By the way, "la gourmandise" is the enjoyment of good food, but "une gourmandise" is the thing you eat for the sake of gourmandise: a delicate and delicious piece of food, an off-meal little treat like chocolate, a piece of cake or a sweet, something you eat not to feed you, but to please you :)
@@FlorianBaumannoh, ich wusste dies nicht! Danke für dieses schöne Wort - es wird sicher mir helfen, wenn ich mich in Deutschland nach Currywürsten ein wenig hungrig fühle.
"Si" was the highlight of this list for me. I love how yes and no seem to be the most ambiguous words in many languages despite their supposed inherent simplicity.
We have the same distinction in Norwegian. The normal words for "yes" and "no" are "ja" and "nei". They can be ambiguous in similar cases as Rob mentioned. If you say "Du liker ikke pizza?" (you don't like pizza?), and answer "ja", you have the same problem as in English. In those cases I would use "jo" or "joda", which confirm that I like pizza. Alternatively I could answer "neida", in order to clarify that I actually don't like pizza.
Si maman, si Si maman, si Maman, si tu voyais ma vie Je pleure comme je ris Si maman, si Mais mon avenir reste gris Et mon cœur aussi If mama if If mama if Mom, if you could see my life I cry as I laugh If mama if But my future remains gray As well as my heart (From "Si Maman si" by France Gall) (Crap... I'm crying again😄)
It’s a strange expression, but perhaps you could say, “I am partial to them.” This means you like and deal favorably towards them (or something) but this is devoid of any sense of charity. Favorability or preference, yes, but charity, no.
My favourite french word is "quincaillerie". It does translate to hardware store, but I find it much more interesting. It comes from quincaille, meaning metal tools and hardware, which itself comes from the sound that metal pieces make when clanking against one another. I suggest clankery as the English equivalent.
Spanish has a rough equivalent - in the use and forms of "tutear", I think. You can use "tu", or not use "tu", depending on the circumstances, and you can announce your intention to stop using it too.
@@truthray2885 German has the same: Duzen vs. Siezen. I guess any community that has such a differentiation will develop some way of talking about it.
The one word I want to see introduced to english is "la flemme". It basically means that you're too tired to do something and you don't want to do it at the same time. For example: -Can you do the dishes? -Flemme. You don't have enough energy to do something like chores or homework, something that you don't really like doing.
Hi, french person here. I just wanna add that we, in fact, have a word equivalent to Make. It’s Fabriquer. But we only use it when we are making an object at home, like a DIY, OR when we make a product, like in a factory. Exemple : Ils fabriquent des chaises = They are making chairs
We also have fabricate/fabrication in English. It refers to the process of turning a raw material into a finished product (or component of a thing). It is often used to emphasize that something is/was made from scratch, rather than being assembled from pre-existing parts. Unlike the French fabriquer, the English fabricate is generally only used when a power tool/machine is involved in making a thing. Crafting an object by hand is not fabrication! I don't know why...
@@mgg5418 For other purposes, we have specific verbs. “Making a meal” would be “cuisiner” or even “préparer un repas”. “Faire”is used because it has a generic meaning. It is fast to use if we’re being lazy.
Great list! I completely agree with your picks! A few notes: - “Chez” can sometimes mean “with regard to” or “from the perspective/mindset of”, such as “C’est un mot étrange chez les anglophones.” (“It’s a weird word from the perspective of English speakers.”) - “Si” can also mean “so” as an intensifier, such as “C’est si bon !” (“It’s so good!”). - I think of the difference of “savoir” and “connaître” is like the difference between recollection and familiarity. You can recall a fact, or you can have familiarity with a person or a place. (Old French used to use “connaître” as a euphemism for procreating with someone, because of the intimacy involved.) Thanks for the video!
Omgggg you just helped me out with tutoyer!! I live in a French area now, and an email I just got the guy said "tu peux me tutoyer," I thought he meant I can phone him rather than email, but he means I can be less formal with him!!! Thank you so much, now I don't have to phone him and speak broken French 😂😂😂
@@gylfie7 tu peux me tutoyer in translate came out as "you can speak to me" and b/c we don't have a tu vs. vous thing in English, that thought never crossed my mind. In the context, I had assumed he meant to call him rather than email, b/c it was an e-mail about figuring out some scheduling stuff.
No! The first word we need to steal is "Detrompe-toi!" Unfool yourself. I was so thrilled to read and understand this in a book. If I say "unfool yourself," everyone understands it, but unfool is not yet an English word. We need this one.
5:08 Some french people do actually call gouter that. "Quatre-heures" (I've probably mispelt that) is what my family in northwest france would call the same thing.
My first language is English. I learned French in school growing up in Québec, Canada. I was taught that, in French, I should address people I don't know and those who are my elders or superiors as "vous." Where I work, the vast majority speak French, we are very informal and address each other as "tu" regardless of our relative positions within the organisation. However, when I am dealing with a rude employee (of equal or lower rank), I will begin to *_vouvoyer_* . That way (1) they cannot complain that I am being disrespectful; and (2) it is also a very gentle way of putting them in their place without actually putting them in their place.
it's similar in German. Sie/du for the formal/informal form of address are still in use but even in professional settings the formal version is falling out of use rapidly. the Swedes have passed this phase long ago. let's see how long it will take the Koreans to shelve some of their three (formerly five) levels of politeness in addressing people.
I was taught that in France you should address people with "vous" by default unless you know them well. I was then taught "tu" is often the default in Québec (and Acadia?) outside of formal settings. (Vous versus tu can definitely be used in passive-aggressive ways, but if an English speaker does it, they are usually assumed to be linguistically confused.)
My favourite word that I haven't found a translation for in English is apprivoiser. It's the process of getting to know each other with mutual respect, and slowly moving the boundaries of privacy towards being more intimate. It can be used for two people, but its original meaning is aimed at describing the process of befriending a wild animal. But apprivoiser is the step before becoming friends. Juste being comfortable around each other. I often see it translated as to tame, but those words are in fact exact opposites.
@@RobWords - I can’t play with you,” said the fox. I'm not apprivoisé - “What does “apprivoiser” mean? - "It’s something too forgotten,” said the fox. It means “Create connections…” - Create links? - Of course, said the fox. To me you are still just a little boy, just like a hundred thousand little boys. And I don't need you. And you don't need me either. For you I am only a fox like a hundred thousand foxes. But, if you apprivoise me, we will need each other. You will be unique to me in the world. I will be unique in the world for you... The Little Prince
Well, I have to completely disagree on this one. Let me tell you that you have a very romanticized view on "apprivoiser", which is actually not in agreement with the true meaning of this verb. "Apprivoiser" is, indeed, "to tame". It means : to make someone (presumably an animal) less fearful, more docile. Mostly used towards a feral being. The way that you use it towards a person is, in fact, veeeery figurative.
@@Casimir2811 I guess we use this verb differently in french. I would use dresser in french to translate to tame. Apprivoiser in my opinion is best explained by Saint Exupéry in Le petit prince through the words of the fox. It means to create bonds between people. And this bonding makes each other special for the other one. It's not the domination of one over the other.
Tutoiement / vouvoiement is a real pain in the neck in the context of movie dubbing. Oftentimes protagonists meet and they’d typically be vouvoying each other, but then they start to fall in love and you have to switch to tutoying.. but the original English dialogues do not explain this change of course. The general convention is, I believe, to make them abruptly tutoy each other once they had sex
The actual correct way to dub them would be for them to dance around the issue awkwardly, trying to find ways to express themselves without using either, like normal people actually do
This is a general issue for German dubbing as well, and it introduces another level of intimacy that is most often not present in the original version. It seems to be a matter of interpretation of the German dialog authors when this is supposed to happen. This was quite obvious in series like "Star Trek" with couples like Riker/Troi or Dax/Worf where they kept the "Siezen" (saying "Sie", the formal address) for some time even after they shared the mattress. In particular, this is often used to disguise the relationship to others, keeping "Sie" when talking in groups, and then switching to "du" in private moments.
it gets even worse for eastern Asia where you have varying degrees of familiarity, formality, seniority and other variables that affect the way one speaks to another there's no better way to reflect that than leaving these honorifics untouched IMO, but that still doesn't help with changes of grammar and multitudes of simple I/me they use
@@HappyBeezerStudios Umberto Eco would probably go for that. In his book on translation, he mentions that translating may involve finding new ways of creating a culturally coded feeling. Languages that use formal and informal speech usually also have an arsenal of evasive speech patterns, like switching into passive voice, or adressing the other obliquely via the 1st/2nd person plural or 3rd person singular. If there is a way to utilize that to create a certain feeling, why shouldn't you? Another way of course is to try and communicate the lack of distinction in the original language by having everyone use informal speech. That's usually what is done when dubbing Skandinavian languages into German, because it fits the typical Skandinavian vibe. We don't really do it all that much when translating English.
Contrary to Julie's opinion, I would say that the word "dépaysement" is almost always used in its positive sense, and not necessarily when you're abroad; to translate "homesickness" the French rather use “avoir le mal du pays”. By the way I had never realized how clever the word "si" was... Anyway, thanks for this video, as always it was clever and inspiring.
I think the closest English idiom is « culture shock », but the connotation is almost always negative. I grew up in an English-speaking country, and it doesn't surprise me that we have no term for « the pleasure of finding yourself in unfamiliar surroundings ». In the end, it's one of the saddest contrasts between English and French. The French language and culture seems to anticipate pleasure in everything and everyone, whereas the English language and culture seems to anticipate nothing but pain and humiliation.
It is a bit positive as it implies a new, enriching experience, however, it also has a slightly negative connotation as it implies unfamiliarity, confusion and loss of all usual reference points (I wanted to say repères, but I couldn't find an accurate translation of that meaning so here's maybe another word to steal or maybe it's just that I can't find the right word).
Yes it is almost always used with a positive connotation but as it is neutral, it can have a negative meaning too. Meaning désarroi, désorientation. It used to mean "exil".
@@geronimus-prime The phrase "culture shock" is more commonly used negatively, but I'm never felt that it was exclusively a negative concept. It's more commonly used negatively because generally people will prefer their home over an unfamiliar place, so most culture shocks are not viewed favorably. But the concept itself isn't inherently negative.
Maybe "a sense of displacement" would be a better translation? A feeling that you're not in a familiar place. Although that usually comes across as a bit negative too, a mildly disturbing sensation.
oh, interesting! As a Welsh person we have tu and vous (ti & chi) and, now I realise we have savoir and connaître - nabod (to know a person or place) and gwybod (to know facts etc). Great stuff Rob, thanks, diolch, merci.
Not that surprising since the French language has many Celtic influences due to the Gauls reining over most of France way back! In fact, there's a great video here on TH-cam about French with its Latin AND Celtic influence. Look for "Why French sounds so unlike other Romance languages".
As a native French speaker, I really want English to steal "justement". It's so impossible to translate in English, so difficult to explain, yet so useful, it drives me insane. I think the best way I could explain it is, "justement" is to "exactement" (exactly) what "but" is to "and", in the sense that both "and" and "but" add two pieces of information together, but "but" adds this idea that the second piece goes against the first in some way. "Justement" is a way to confirm what someone just said, but while disagreeing with an assumption or a premise behind what they just said, or a conclusion that person is deriving from what they just said. It's kind of like saying "Yes, that is true, but that's why you're wrong". In a non-rude way, that is. It can also be, without necessarily disagreeing with what's being said, a way to agree with someone while adding information they are not aware of that might change their implied conclusion. Examples: "Well, it wouldn't have happened if you sent that e-mail before it was too late." "Justement, I did it a day before the limit." (Here, I agree with the logical implication that it would have happened if I didn't send it on time, and I agree that it shouldn't have happened if I sent it in time, but I disagree with the assumption that I didn't do it in time) "These plants are going to die without shade." "Justement, that's why I bought that roof-thing on Amazon. It should arrive in a few days." (Here, I'm agreeing with the general fact, but I'm adding extra information to explain why the possible implied conclusion that they will die won't happen; in this case, my interlocutor might even be aware of the purchase, but didn't connect the dots) You CAN express those things in English, individually, but English lacks a multi-purpose word that works exactly like "justement", and the formulations you could use in English to translate "justement" are also sometimes (or often) used in ways where they don't match with the uses of "justement", and that's what drives me crazy with this. In the second example, you could formulate "That's exactly why [...]", but in other contexts, "exactly" can be used in ways that would be translated as "exactement" rather than "justement" (including in similar grammatical contexts), cases where you just fully agree without really adding information unknown to your conversation partner. In the first example, you could say something like "But that's the thing", but it's more like an expression you use in a very specific context, an expression where the individual words have their own meaning and, even in this arrangement, the whole thing could mean something else in another context, and it's all very different from just having a single unambiguous word like "justement". Maybe I'm missing something very obvious that would work in English, feel free to tell me. EDIT: Ok, I'm going to address a few of the responses. Someone said that "justement" is like "actually" and "exactly" in a single meaning, and I think that's a beautiful way to say it. On responses that suggested things like "I know", "Well, yeah", "Yes, and", "Indeed", "Precisely", "True, but", "Rightly so": While these do work for the second example, they don't really work for the first example. These expressions express total agreement with the previous statement, which works with "These plants are going to die without shade". This sentence is just a logical statement that I can't disagree with. The part I disagree with is merely the unsaid: "Therefore, your plants are going to die". So, there isn't really a problem saying something that just agrees with the actually said part. But in the first example, the sentence straight up presupposes that I didn't send the e-mail, which just isn't true (so the sentence doesn't actually reflect reality and needs correcting). Here, I actually disagree with both the premise and the conclusion expressed in the sentence, so I can't just say something that fully agrees with it. But also (and that's a comment I responded to directly but I want to highlight it here as well), something that just fully goes against what was said (specifically for the first example), like "actually", fails to express that I agree with the logic ("What you said would be true if the premise was actually correct"). "justement" expresses both agreement and disagreement in some way, so an English word that goes only one way or the other fails to properly convey what "justement" does. One important thing I forgot to mention that also goes against a lot of those suggestions is the fact you can use "justement" in the middle of discourse, instead of as a response. I could be showing my garden to someone, and let's assume this person knows I bought some roof-thing on Amazon, but the purpose is yet unknown to them. As I am explaining things about my garden, I then point out "These plants are going to die without shade, and that's justement why I bought that roof-thing." In this case, the purpose of "justement" (on top of connecting the knowledge of me buying the roof-thing with the new info about the plants) is not so much to express disagreement, but to express something that counteracts what I just said in some way, kinda like a word like "but" can do. The suggestions provided, for the most part, cannot work in the middle of discourse like that. Of course, a simple "exactly" would perfectly work here in English. But I feel you still miss a little bit of the nuance of "justement", because in this example, you could also say "exactement" in French, but I feel like it doesn't mean the exact same thing as "justement" even in this context. It doesn't really have the same "countering" side to it. I don't know. As I said, it's hard to explain this word; when I use it, I don't think about those things, it's all just vibes. Someone did however suggest "about that", which I think might be the best candidate so far. It doesn't actually mean the same as "justement" per se, but it does work well as a way to introduce a sentence correcting some assumption, without feeling like it's immediately going completely against what has been said (like an "actually" would). It might still be difficult to use in the middle of discourse, though. Edit 2: Someone also suggested "except", which is also a very good candidate, but it might be a bit too confrontational for when you actually fully agree with the statement, as it is the case in the second example I initially provided. It's also not going to work as well in the middle of discourse, at least not in the way I've shown.
Great examples. In English sometimes we say, "actually" for "justement" but it is too negative since it lacks the part where you agree in part with the original speaker. I suppose you could say, "I agree and that is why I bought the roof thingy..." Or "100%" Such a funny way to say I agree.
@@LookingForAnotherPlanetJustement manages to say ‘actually’ and ‘exactly’ as a single meaning. What a great word, English really could use it. Maybe something like ‘jusmenly’ could be used (I know ment = ly but just translating it directly as justly wouldn’t work since that has a completely different meaning already)
The nearest thing I can think of is "well, yeah". "These plants will die without shade." "Well yeah, thats why I bought a roof-thing on Amazon." Source: midwest American English
As an English-wired brain surviving in France, I know exactly how you feel when the words at your disposal don't assemble into ideas in the way your brain is most used to. But all the same, your command of English seems impeccable! _Justement..._ I think the idiom you're looking for is a special case of the phrase: _I know._ It has a special music to it, very similar to the inflection you would give « mais si ! » in French. But it doesn't do entirely what you want, in that depending on your tone, it can indeed sound belligerent, or even rude. I think this is why anglophones often need to explain to each other that friendly French conversations can feel more hostile than they're used to. Because French has these rhetoric structures that allow you to disagree without seeming rude. Whereas in English, the only way to be sure not to offend is to hide your disagreement. Anyway... _"Well, it wouldn't have happened if you sent that e-mail before it was too late."_ I *_know._* That's why I did it a day before the deadline. _"These plants are going to die without shade."_ I *_know._* That's why I bought that roof-thing on Amazon...
I would use the ''word' mmm... to indicate general acknowledgement of the OP's point which, if using the appropriate tone, would imply the same thing as 'justement' before going on to add my own two Penn'orth.
The algorithm brought me to your channel because I am very interested in linguistics. (The first video that was recommended to me was your “guide to our aphabeth”). But now I was happy to realize that you even make videos that give me new inspiration for my French learning. Je suis ravie! The explanation you used for ‘oui’ and ‘si’ is just perfect - easy to understand and precise. I think I will use this explanation soon to explain ‘ja’ and ‘doch’ to my friend, who is currently learning German.
As a Frenchman who has lived most of his life in English speaking countries I very much enjoyed this video. May I add the word "cuisiner". It doesn't simply mean to cook. That's the word "cuire". Cuisiner is to make or prepare food, of which cooking might be part of it.
@AnthonyGrini you're right. Like you wouldn't say, je vais te cuisiner un steak. It has a meaning which is difficult convey in English because it doesn't have an equivalent. C'est bien cuit and C'est bien cuisiner have different meanings, but in English there is just It's cooked well. It would be nice to have an English equivalent.
As a French quite fluent in English, this video is also useful. It gave me the opportunity to remind me of formulations to translate French sentences in English, and what we can’t say!
17:40 As a native French speaker, we can indeed use "faire" for a lot of meanings, but there are also verbs like "confectionner/préparer" which can only be applied when making something
@@vorastrixaridarastrixiejir403 usually, to make = faire/fabriquer ; to craft = réaliser/confectionner. But these overlap as much in English as in French. The key difference being the creativity involved in the crafting = la réalisation.
Love your work, Rob! I discovered you first by watching Deutsche Welle while using their content for my Spanish classes and learning German myself. Just watching regular English DW, I would see you often reporting. Most objective news on television and the web.
I vividly remember when I first went to work in Paris. I didn't know about rebonjour, but I was soon introduced to it when I greeted a colleague for the second time in a morning and he quickly (and somewhat firmly) corrected me with a rebonjour. It introduced me to the idea that French people keep much closer track of who they have met and greeted than English speakers do. (and then there's the handshakes...oh, boy)
Yes, that's it. I was admonished for saying 'bonjour' the second time I saw somebody in a day; my 'bonjour' was interpreted as though I couldn't be bothered to remember that I had already greeted that person earlier in the day. Of course, if you want to get literal then 'bonjour' and 'hello' are not the same thing. Would one be admonished for saying 'salut' a second time or "devrait-on dire resalut"?
@@sfnumis9286some people actually say "resalut" ou "recoucou" which is even less formal. The re being the important part, since we think indeed that it's important to remember who you've met earlier. I actually never realised it was so common before this video.
Je n'aime pas les Poignées de Main ( à la Française ) parce que les Mains sont pleines de Doigts ! Je Préfère le " Waï " à la Façon Thaï parce que c'est plus PROPRE et plus RESPECTUEUX ...
Does Italian have similar equivalents for the other words? I guess not "flaner" because that's a Parisian invention and concept, but maybe the others exist in Italian?
interestingly english does have close words to either, "sapience" and "conscience", both obviously loanwords. And both in context of higher level thinking.
11:43 In Bengali, we also have a similar distinction with three levels of formality for 'you' just like French has 'tu' and 'vous'. We use: তুই (tui): Very informal, like 'tu', used with close friends or younger people. তুমি (tumi): Polite, neutral, comparable to 'tu' in less formal situations but respectful. আপনি (apni): Formal, similar to 'vous', used with elders or in professional settings to show respect. It’s interesting how different languages express formality in similar ways!
There's another level in French politeness, which is rarely use outside diplomatic events and very high end service venues, where people will talk to the high rank person in the third person and the pronoun is replace by Monsieur or Madame. Translated into English, it sounds like "Do Monsieur desire to dine in the garden tonight?" I know they have these kind of uncommon high politeness level in East Asia too, I'm curious to know if you have these in South Asia.
@@mariannerichard1321 the extreme levels of third-person politeness seen in diplomatic French or Japanese aren't commonly used in everyday South Asian languages, formal settings or traditional ceremonies might employ certain linguistic markers to show reverence or extreme politeness.
@mariannerichard1321 In English language shows and movies involving royalty or nobility, subjects are often seen addressing royalty in a similar manner, using a form of the person's title (e.g., My Lord, or Your Majesty) instead of saying "you". I'm not exactly how accurate that is, since here in the US we don't have an aristocracy or any sort of peerage.
@allthe1 Not even in those circumstances. While we do call judges "Your Honor", and our legislators "Congressman" or "Senator", we don't use them as a substitute for "you" or address those people as if we're talking about them in the third person. So for a judge, we don't say, "Yes, sir." We say, "Yes, Your Honor." With our legislators, where we might say, "sir" or "ma'am" or "Mr." or "Mrs.", we just use their title.
I’m so glad to see goûter on this list. I studied a bit of French and learned this word and I’ve used it ever since. I taught it to my 4yo and he knows when he’s allowed to have something sweet “goûter time” he doesn’t bother me all day for sweet things so it really works. Anyway I sometimes forget that it’s not part of English so hopefully now it can be, 🎉 😊
@@pioline741 4 h is a misnommer (school stops at 16.30) and so is "goûter" quand t'es dégoûté . With responsible parents, you're thoroughly disgusted at least 5 days a week. Unless you think a Caribbean fruit basket will be all the rage for your birthday party...an apple a day keeps the smile away.
J'adore ce mec! Non seulement je comprends tout ce qu'il dit, ce qui n'est pas peu dire! Son niveau de langue est séduisant, son accent british m'enrobe, je veux parler anglais, si, mais comme lui. Je comprends, grâce à lui, maintenant, le sens de THOU et de THEE qui m'échappait depuis toujours. Merci Rob, merci beaucoup!
And I am pleased he referenced the quakers as using thee and thought. We have many Amish colonies across America that use these pronouns as well as Pennsylvania dutch.
@@garryferrington811Is "will" a verb or a noun in your sentence. At first I assumed it was a noun, in which case "thine" should be "thy". (Try replacing with my or mine.). If the sentence is a response to a question like "will his job get done or will mine?", it is correct.
I live in France, I am French, I wanted to clarify that the use of "vous" when the relationship evolves can also reflect a distancing of the person in certain regions. It can become hurtful, especially if the person we are speaking with tries to use the familiar form "tu" or vice versa. Especially in Flanders where the informal form is very quick or even immediate, it is linked to the proximity of the Belgians who speak Flemish and do not have this differentiation. In any case, thank you very much for this lovely view of our language which allowed me to understand why the French are so "romantic" for the rest of the world. Living here all the time we forget it!
"Bouquiner" is to reading what "flâner" is to walking. Also, we use the verb "dépayser" in the legal vocabulary when a case is removed from a court and transferred to another jurisdiction in order to ensure the impartiality of the court.
@@hugolouessard3914 no, "extrader" means to send one person to another country where they will face trial. "Dépayser" is used in the legal sense, for instance when a case in Bordeaux is taken to a court in Paris
In Québec, flâner is used to refered as hanging out, do nothing, sometimes in some prohibited place. For example, in my childhood school, there was an "interdit de flâner" near the passing of school buses
Flâner is present in High German as "flanieren", loaned from French. I think it's a bit fallen out of style in Germany, but is still used in Switzerland in Swiss High German as well as many Swissgerman dialects. In my dialect it would most likely sound like "flaniëre" to a French speaker.
@@Andreas_42 I think my parents would still use 'flanieren' when we're on a city trip and just walking around the pedestrian zone of the old city and looking at all the little shops and cafés.
This was very funny for me, a native France French speaker, when I went to Quebec. Like, how can you forbid "flâner" ? Next, they will ban daydreaming and gazing at the sky? ^^
@@HermelJaworski That seems like such a North-American thing. Loitering as a concept is just weird. Let people just hang out outside. In rural Germany, "Bushaltestelle" (bus stop) is a whole activity/hobby, because there is not much to do, so teens just go to bus stops to hang out with each other. There is a bench to sit on and they can drink and talk without their parents watching. If there were loitering laws they'd have even less possibilities to do anything.
22:10 An interesting fact: In Russian we have the very word 'bouquiniste' (but of course spelled in cyrillic) with the very same meaning - 'a seller of the second hand books' (It's naturally a French loan-word)
As a French, I really enjoyed this vid especially for le goûter which his quite important in French culture (for kids most of the time) and "chez" cause I remember having trouble learning the " 's " in english class 😅
As a French person, here is a word I couldn't find a translation for, "la flemme". It's slang to express a sort of laziness, which is not negative. For example, if you are seated in a constable place, and you need to get up to do a moderately important tasks, you can say : "Pff, j'ai la flemme de me lever" or jsute "Flemme"
@@Nohraz not at all la flemme ! you couldn't be bothered if it doesn't matter.you just yawn if asked for help that you may grant or not. Being unenthousiastic or lazy/ deficient is key. It's mostly a teenager thing. a form of lazy you can afford/ are permitted. Slugabed fits flemmard in the morning. in reverse, slugabed is magnificent and has no french equivalent. On peut faire la grasse mâtinée. It's not boring. Borderline necessary if you partied all night.. La flemme de se lever. aucune motivation.
There is one word that actually MUST become a thing in English from French : papouilles. "Faire des papouilles" (to do papouilles) means to slowly and extremely gently graze someone's skin. It is a very sweet and affectionate gesture, that feels amazing for everyone involved. And anytime I grew close enough with a non French speaking person to do papouilles, they were surprised it was an actual thing that people can do, and that has a name. So everyone who doesn't know this word yet, take a page from the universal language of love, and do papouilles! (consensually of course)
Caress: yes and no. A papouille is a caress, but not all caresses are papouilles. Papouilles are extremely soft, barely touching each other. Butterfly kisses: yes, but with your fingers, anywhere on the other person's body, instead of using your eyelashes. So again, not really. Petting: I actually never used that word in that context, and had to look up what it would mean there. It seems to me that it doesn't convey that meaning of extreme softness either, while also being too sexual. You can do papouilles with friends, while petting seems to be a bit more "involved".
That's still used in Scottish, and is cognate with the Norse languages. In Danish “kende” is “connaitre” and “vide” is “savoir”. “Vide” leads to “visdom”, which the English have as “wisdom”.
@@rasmis and then suddenly, english rebecomes closer to dutch to :-) . easy peasy : connaitre = kennen, savoir = weten. something you learned for a test or so you 'ken' , think out of your head. savoir = weten, to really know, = to know by heart :)
Similar in German: connaitre = kennen (ich kenne, du kennst, er/sie/es kennt, wir kennen, ihr kennt, sie kennen) savoir = wissen (ich weiß, du weißt, er/sie/es weiß, wir wissen, ihr wisst, sie wissen)
@@RobWords You also have a penchant for our French language. Just don't be shy, and take a 3-weeks vacation in our beautiful country. Like the South-West of France, you would like it, half of England's retirees are already there, anyway. 😉
"Si", as the german "doch", is not just infirmative. It's more, because it does not just infirm what you're saying, it does affirm the contrary. I'd call it counteraffirmative.
Same for "si", it only infirm the negative, you can't use it to get out of a "did you stop cheating on your partner?" type of question. Also, I am happy to have discovered the verb "infirmative", but I think that "counter affirmative" better explains "si". Like in this exchange: Policeman to thief : "Tu as volé la pomme" The thief : "Non" The witness : "Si!" (yes, you did steal the apple)
I've always liked to say it means "On the contrary: yes, actually" - which I think covers the full scope of the meaning, so beautifully rendered in the lil word "si"
In swedish we use the word jo as an infirmative/counter affirmative ja (yes) In swedish we use the words dua and nia as verbs for calling someone informal / formal you. But it hasn't really been practiced for the laat 50 years when swedes collectivley switched to calling everyone informal you.
I always loved that the word _Connaître_ or la _connaissance_ is so remarkable by its intimate etymology. It is composed of the prefix "co- / con-" meaning "with" or "together" and "naissance" which is "birth". So connaître quelqu'un (to know someone) is like if a relationship with someone is to be born together.
Old English used to have the connaitre/savoir distinction with cunnan/wittan. 'Know' evolved from a third word that kind of did double duty for both senses.
The word "ken" (from cunnan) still shows up in some English dialects. English also held onto the word (archaically) for some phrases, such as, "Quantum mechanics is beyond my ken".
Bonne chance pr apprendre le français 💀🙏 Ça peux vrmt devenir un bordel avec les exeptions parfois (comme les lettres muettes, mais au moins contrairement à l'anglais on utilise des accents et ca respectebdes regles claires et une lettre ne peux pas faire genre 3838273810102 sons différent comme avec enough through though ect ☠️, jsp pk je dis ca, mais voila)
judging by my life in the pharmacy we already do. I regularly see prescriptions with stuff like "Take three times a day with breakfast." And sometimes respond to doctors with "Is patient a hobbit?"
@@pharmesq I believe even Hobbits only have two breakfasts in the normal course of events... Though, arguably, if you're not snacking in between, any meal could rightly be called breakfast..
Très rigolo ! May I suggest yet another word: chiner. That's what you do chez les bouquinistes: you are searching for no book in particular. Same thing at an antique shop. It's an opportunistic way of searching. On chine d'ailleurs en flânant. It's like an animal foraging for food: it doesn't know what it'll get. It'll pick what it finds.
Here in Quebec we have the verb « magasiner » that derives from the English « to shop » and has no equivalent in European French. We can either « magasiner » or « faire du magasinage » to refer to shopping, window-shopping or to look for good deals. It is interesting to see that some regional expressions have no exact translation in the main or standard dialect.
In metropolitan French "magasiner" would be to to stock up shelves at a shop or manage stocks. We just use "faire du shopping" anyway, so it's not like we need a overload "magasiner".
Great list! I'd add "tiens" (literally "take") which is much easier than "here you are, have this". Also, "racler" specifically in the context of finishing all the food on your plate: "racle ton assiette!". The original word means "scrape" and gives the fabulous cheese Raclette it's name.
12:45 in english you once had "thou". In German, we still have "Du" und "Sie". And our words for the act of adressing something with one of them is "Duzen" or "Siezen".
When Robert Cecil accused the Earl of Essex at the trial for his rebellion against Elizabeth I., he reportedly screamed at him "I thou thee, thou traitor!" So, there even was a word for 'tutoyer' in English.
@@kaibroeking9968 The fun part about English grammar. You can turn anything into a verb by just... sticking it in the verb slot in the sentence, and the grammar will generally work. ... now, whether your intended meaning is coherent or not might require a little more caution, but it will be a gramatically correct sentence!
Bouquiner, le goûter, flâner, être dépaysé … all these words have a positive, warm undertone, they imply some simple pleasure. Maybe our friends from across the Channel would, by adopting them, benefit from the start of a dangerous laisser-faire, aka to become more relaxed and to give in to simple pleasures. Peace and love to the world!
I come from a country - Canada - where French is a minority and where French speakers are sometimes discriminated against, so we often hear "English is more precise than French". Thank you for your video.
Well every language come with its pro and cons and english as well has some words which are difficult or less precise in french translation (like _bully_ or _sibling_). But every language have that (like the german _Schadenfreude_ or the japanese _umami_). None is better than another and anyone telling you else just proved they knew nothing about both languages.
@shinigamileo8250 Siblings is frères et sœurs, or frère/sœur when you're referring to one whose gender is specified. I guess English doesn't have a word for aunt and uncle together, but that's not a problem. The same way sibling not existing isn't really an issue in French.
I believe what people mean is that English is more straightforward to some extent. Soyons honnêtes; beaucoup de québécois font pâle figure devant Rob. J'ai souvent encouragé des clients anglophones à s'exprimer en français en leur disant que s'ils ne maîtrisaient pas le genre en confondant le et la, plusieurs francophones (au Québec) avaient de la misère avec la grammaire: Ils "sontaient", il "a tombé" par terre, ce "que" je veux te parler, etc...
@@cryme5 Of course it's not an issue : if it really was, a word would've been created (or taken from another language) in that intent. The only words "missing" are often words that describe something not really an issue to express somewhat else (like "_sibling_") or something not known and used (like "_umami_").
@@shinigamileo8250 i really hate that french dosen't have a gender neutral word like siblings. How am i supposed to call my non-binairy character like 😭 i love french but i still have beef with all the sexism in it
One word that English should definitely steal from French is "Débrouillard" and its derivations (the verb débrouiller, and the noun débrouillardise). It can be translated "good problem solver" with added independence and self-reliance.
In Québec, flâner has a more negative connotation: it means to hang in a place without visible purpose. The most common way you'll encounter this word in Québec would be on warning signs saying something like "Interdiction de flâner" or "No loitering"
Well not really a word without an equivalent, as you pointed out "to loiter" means the same thing if I understand correctly. And @Yetaxa generally standing around doing nothing in a public space is suspicious, anywhere around the world, as most people who earn an honest living don't do so.
It's also a big part of the France definition of the word, but without the negative connotation. At least originally, it's also often used colloquially as English would use "to dawdle". On the other hand, I can't think of a proper, full, France French translation for loitering, including the negative and often legal connotation. A neutral loitering would be the same as flâner, but I don't know enough English to be sure how negative or neutral loitering is in various English speaking countries.
@@LiraeNoir loitering is generally perceived to be a negative thing. It can be used as neutral or even with a hint positive romanticism (like flâner) in certain poetic situations, but that would have to be shaped by context.
My wife’s family, from the Chicago area, use the preposition “by,” like the French “chez.” Thus, “We are having dinner by you* tonight,” to mean “We are having dinner at your place….” My wife’s grandmother claimed to be of French descent, so I wonder if her ancestors didn’t just grab the nearest English preposition to fill the gap left by “chez” and fill it in with “by.” *optionally, could said “youse” for the plural.
I think it might be German influence. It happens quite a bit in mid-western dialects, or so I've heard. The German word (bei) is used similarly to French 'chez', or Latin 'apud'
I had to fill in a form on-line recently where I had to tick yes or no to the question "Do you not have a mobile phone". I've still no idea which box I should have ticked.
That's a badly designed form. Written by someone who does not know how English grammar works... I'd give better than even odds that they were a native speaker whose particular path of education and/or hobbies did not include the few disciplines that require one actually understand how English grammar actually works...
@@planetary-rendez-vous On utilise les deux verbes de manière intuitive. On dira 'je connais l'Angleterre' mais jamais on ne dira 'je sais l'Angleterre'. De la même manière on dira 'je sais parler l'anglais ou je sais que tu ne vas pas bien' mais jamais 'je connais parler l'anglais ou je connais que tu ne vas pas bien' Savoir et connaître sont deux verbes qu'on emploie habituellement sans savoir vraiment expliquer leur différences. Juste par habitude de language.
Je ne m'étais jamais rendu compte non plus de cette différence entre les 2. Puis un jour un Belge a su me dire, et j'ai compris que le savoir c'était pas toujours pareil
Interesting! Adding one word which also tells a lot culturally, but first a few personal comments. 1. Gourmandise, flâner, bouquiner. Interesting how it's all about leisure, pleasant times anx activities. English does not lack words for doing and making, but it lacks enjoyment it seems! 2. I do think you can use wander, or maybe even rumble, for flâner. 3. Another missing word : "la rentrée"! Closest would be "back to school", but it's not a word. And also la rentrée can be used not only for school/uni, but work in general. Happy to develop if interested. Cheers!
this is PERFECT for my fantasy novel. one of the things i want to do to distinguish between different people groups is to have some people use more ‘norman’ and latinate features of english, and others use more of ‘anglish’ side of english
I love how many of the words refer to the activity of doing something just for the sake of it (gourmandise, flâner, bouquiner). I'm french and I never thought of them that way, I love it !
'Bouquiner' can also mean to browse through different books in a library or a book shop or a coffee shop that has books. Basically, just going through a few pages of a book or of several books. (French-speaking translator here). On another note about 'si'. You can give more strength to your 'si' by saying 'mais si!' ('aber doch' in German).
Another fun word is fleuve . Fleuve in french is a river who finish in the ocean la Tamise. l'Amazone or la seine are des fleuves . It's a big difference.
yes! i was making english subtitles for a french show, and at one point the characters talk about something happening in un fleuve. I realize with surprise I don't know the word for it, so I look it up... and find out it's river. In english, when you say "river" you can either mean the thing between two rocks that you see in the forest, or that big long thing that immediately goes into the sea or the ocean. It makes the picturing of a scene a bit harder x)
This reminds me of my stepmother who said she couldn't understand why English uses the word river for both. French is our native language by the way, Québec French to be more specific.
@@jlevan1996Doch has actually three very different usages. One could almost say it's three different words. But the informative usage is very simple and exactly like the French si.
🇨🇵 What a pleasure to hear you speak French! Your accent is very good, with some enjoyable english stylish touches here and there. One thing amazing for me, and which I've learnt from you, is the incredible amount (30%) of French words in the English language. In France we don't usually realise this, us who are always complaining about the increasing number of English words invading the French language! About "gourmandise": it is the behaviour but also its object, and "une gourmandise" is also any delicious something (often used for a cake, a sweet, etc...) and also in a figurative way. So you can enjoy "une gourmandise" with "gourmandise" for "le goûter"... as it is the case by the way for this video. Merci Rob! 😊
The interesting thing about that 30%, is that in at least some cases it's the same word borrowed on multiple occasions over the centuries, but with different (if usually related) meanings.
Decades ago, 🇬🇧 magazine _Punch_ had a column, *Leçon en Franglais* . The one I remember was "Le cowboy achète les Lucky Strikes". Apparently, the proper French spelling is "cow-boy"
Regarding the "si", you used to have it in English. If you're familiar with the four forms yes/yea/no/nay, the current "yes" is the old "yea" and the old "yes" would be the translation of "si".
One of the problems I find in most language tutorials is that immediately teach "tutoyer" right off the bat. So, I have to spend extra time trying to find the formal you forms. As for "to know", we do have "to be acquainted" with someone/something, and "to know" meaning to have deep knowledge about something. Now we tend you use "acquainted" with people. However, I can remember my grandparents differentiating between the two - "Do you really know that or are you just acquainted with it?"
most language tutorials are aimed to teach kids and they usually learn informal language first (unless they are Japanese I guess :)) so they can practise talk among themselves. Business language books should be better source of formal language.
I was looking forward to this video and it did not disappoint! Probably my favourite so far, it illustrates so well how French culture is about enjoying life. As a word-obsessed nerd trying to teach my native French language to my boyfriend (Rob!), this one was really useful. Your videos have become part of our lunch routine! I recommend the newsletter to everyone who hasn’t signed up yet. If you need another French Julie, 🙋🏻♀️
Great content. Merci! Here’s two words probably with no English equivalent in one word: • Amener: Bring someone to a place. • Emmener: Take someone with you from one place to another.
Connaitre - To be familiar with. Makes it a little easier to explain to an English speaker in that way. So we do differentiate the types of knowledge in English, but "to know" is still used for both. We don't have a singular word for specifically having knowledge of a fact. So, arguably, that's the word we need. Not connaitre. But savoir. So bringing back "savvy" to popular use sounds like the best idea.
Flaner, flaneur. We Dutch have our own take on that too. Yes, we also got it from the french. But our take on it is "flaneren". Meaning to walk about the town (usually in places like boulevards, parks and promenades) to watch others but also to be seen! So, in your nicest get up, hiking togs, gaudy dress up.
@@surlyogre1476 To me "to promenade" is walk to be seen, not so to watch. Except maybe for reactions. But that tells you that "to promenade" is to affect the observees. Maybe "flaner" is more of trying not to affect the observees. Observe others in their natural form not in the form how they react to the observer.
On peut "se promener" sans but précis, mais aussi en ayant décidé d'une destination ou pour s'aérer. Alors qu'on "flâne" toujours sans but précis en se laissant guider par l'instant et les alentours, en prenant son temps.
I also like Tutoyer to reference being in “first name basis” with people. Particularly with children. Here in America, at least there’s been an increase in the last decade or so to address young adults put in a position of supervision as “Mr./Ms. First name.” A good example is your child’s summer camp counselor. But, depending on how familiar you are with them, you might eventually just call them by their first name without the Mr./Ms. Essentially Tutoying them.
Absolutely, or even short versions of names/nicknames. I got offended in France that people I felt relaxed with insisted on using my full, formal name because it's like vouvoying me. But that's cultural: nicknames are for very close friends in France generally.
When I was teaching in an international college in England, my students, coming from all over the world, often called me "Dr Ken". A nice compromise between respect and familiarity, I think. (And yes, Ken is my first name, not my surname.)
Honestly, the habbit of talking about 'first name' and 'last name' rather than 'personal name' and 'family name' (with additional terms as necessary) needs to be put out of everyone's misery. It just makes talking about Actual people's actual names (including most native English speakers named in the usual English Speaking Fashion) far more awkward and confusing than it should be.
Nice video 👍 And you forgot to say that before to be used for the "vouvoiement", "vous" is use to designate multiple people unlike "tu" to adresse to one person. Could you do a video of untranslatable English words in French plz ?
I have spoken French as my first foreign language for many years, but I feel a need to confess to not knowing your top three. A fascinating video - it felt good to know the other words.
Au contraire regarding “chez.” At least in British English you say “To yours.” Chez = “to” in this construction. “To Rob’s” also works. Just need to make the second word a possessive.
In some cases yes. But « to » translates the movement towards the destination. If you are chez le coiffeur, you’ve already arrived at the hairdresser’s. And if you want to analyze the use of colour symbolism chez Baudelaire or the sense of space chez Picasso, your best bet is probably to rephrase the whole sentence.
Actually we have to do and to make in french. It's "faire" and "fabriquer". It just doesn't apply to food. So we say "Je fais un gâteau" instead of "Je fabrique un gâteau" for "I make a cake" but we say "Je fabrique une maison" for "I make a house". But anyway, thanks for this video, I'm glad you like my language ❤
I'm French, you have no idea how much I struggle when talking in English when I want to express something like the "si" in French when replying to something
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Give me your untranslatable words from 🇫🇷French or any other language! And grab your discounted language lessons with Lingoda using my link ➡ try.lingoda.com/RobWords25 or code ROBWORDS25 for $25, €20 or £15 off Flex, Sprint and Teams courses.
But what if, I’m poor
@@ThymeHeresame
Up-vote for boquiner!
I am retired in a Spanish speaking country. Conocer vs. Saber, yes we do need two words for the verb "to know." And I agree forv word for the singular YOU. We could make "y'all" for plural you, but that really would be "all y'all" and that is cumbersome. Do work on that for us, Rob.
I love "amuse bouche." So much more interesting than "appetizer."
RobWords taking his name very seriously
Haha
Sharp.
Was just about to remark the same thing, indeed
Nominative determinism at its finest
Just like how a British would do. How predictable imo.
With so much enshittification about nowadays we really need a "démerdez-vous" equivalent.
I'd be curious to hear an accurate english translation for that ! With the same level of annoyance and exasperation as when we say this in French :)
@@gabrielcv1338you could say "that shit is in your hands" 😂
“Take yourself out of the shit alone”
"Démerdez-vous" = leave me out of your mess and figure it out by yourself
@@NicolasMendoulaExactly, I couldn’t find a way to say it
Adopting rebonjour without first adopting bonjour is absolute insanity. You must be stopped.
ReBonjour Banh Mi 🥖
and then there's "bon journee"
"Good day" is still something that's said in english, although it is two words
@@charlesgaskell5899 "*bonne journée"
@@erwan6227my first attempt was bonjournée 😂
Hey there, french man here, just a quick add on "tu" & "vous", "tu" is also a singular word you cannot talk to a group of person with "tu", where "vous" is also a plural and use to call a group of person like "vous devriez visiter ce musée" could be told to both a single person with formally or a group a person without formal/informal distinction. Hope my explanation was clear!
Thanks for talking about our language, you're doing great and I'm happily surprise with your accent! 😄
Tu devrais enlever le "also" dans ""tu" is also a singular..." car il ne peut pas être autre chose
Spanish is better for the vouvoiement, they use "usted" in singular form, and "ustedes" for plural.
Vous allez mangez ? Tu va manger ?
@@anaking5004 -va- mais vas
J'adore chiner, flâner et bouquiner à Bordeaux.
Half of the video is basically Rob explaining how the French have words for enjoying life (for the pure sake of enjoyment). Marvellous.
Esquimos have plenty of words to describe snow.
Exactly. I do not see any use for flaner in English.
Esquimos is considered an insulting word though, better be careful about it
@@ajuntapall6193 Inuits then. No offence intended.
Make BAGUETTE Great Again 🥖
As a french person, i find your video to be very touching, in the way of how you present my langage in such a beautiful way. Of course I know these words, but your diction is very pleasant to hear ; it's like you're paying homage to it. I'm feeling a bit emotional to be honest. I might go flâner a bit, to think about it...
j'ai ressenti la meme chose !
Homage, another french word 😅
@@OlivierCombe touché
N'oublie pas un bon bouquin et une petite gourmandise pour le goûter. Un petit dépaysement charmant
@@hugotabellion9759
oh my god, french is so fancy
(c'est ce que répondrait, je suppose, un anglo saxon lambda à ton message)
As a french, i knew a canadian who told me that she loved our word "flemme" which doesn't translate either, but "flemme" to find an example
Bien trouvé 😂😂 ( well done)
Laziness?
@@jadetheoc8111 yes, "fleme" means "laziness", but in the case you can't translate "fleme!" by "lazyness!"
Euh... oula g pas trop compris la 💀
@@lohengrine In this phrase its more like "I don't want because i'm to lazy to find an exemple" not the actual noun
Frenchman here: your video juste made me realise how much pleasure and the simple fact of enjoying things is part of our culture and of our way of life. It never occurred to me that way, this is striking. Eye-opening, really. Man, I'll have to ponder over this.
By the way, "la gourmandise" is the enjoyment of good food, but "une gourmandise" is the thing you eat for the sake of gourmandise: a delicate and delicious piece of food, an off-meal little treat like chocolate, a piece of cake or a sweet, something you eat not to feed you, but to please you :)
We call it Schlemmerei in German
@@FlorianBaumann Yep, also meaning the same two things, too :)
@@FlorianBaumannoh, ich wusste dies nicht! Danke für dieses schöne Wort - es wird sicher mir helfen, wenn ich mich in Deutschland nach Currywürsten ein wenig hungrig fühle.
@@prenomnom2812 Es gibt auch das Verb "schlemmen", das bedeutet "to indulge"
«Off-meal» what a brilliant expession!👏
"Si" was the highlight of this list for me. I love how yes and no seem to be the most ambiguous words in many languages despite their supposed inherent simplicity.
No
Si
yesn't
We have the same distinction in Norwegian.
The normal words for "yes" and "no" are "ja" and "nei". They can be ambiguous in similar cases as Rob mentioned. If you say "Du liker ikke pizza?" (you don't like pizza?), and answer "ja", you have the same problem as in English. In those cases I would use "jo" or "joda", which confirm that I like pizza. Alternatively I could answer "neida", in order to clarify that I actually don't like pizza.
Si maman, si
Si maman, si
Maman, si tu voyais ma vie
Je pleure comme je ris
Si maman, si
Mais mon avenir reste gris
Et mon cœur aussi
If mama if
If mama if
Mom, if you could see my life
I cry as I laugh
If mama if
But my future remains gray
As well as my heart
(From "Si Maman si" by France Gall)
(Crap... I'm crying again😄)
An English man speaking french voluntarily feels like a compliment, thank you, from France
real
As a french, the word I never know how to translate into english is bienveillance. Benevolence feels very charity-oriented
true !
It’s a strange expression, but perhaps you could say, “I am partial to them.” This means you like and deal favorably towards them (or something) but this is devoid of any sense of charity. Favorability or preference, yes, but charity, no.
Kindheartedness? Kindliness? Kindness?
@@Irulan10 oooh i really like kindheartedness! Thanks for teaching me a new word!
@@calheia6499 Oui c'est un joli mot :) mais comme je suis aussi française que vous, j'ignore si ça traduit bienveillance.
Any native insight?
My favourite french word is "quincaillerie". It does translate to hardware store, but I find it much more interesting. It comes from quincaille, meaning metal tools and hardware, which itself comes from the sound that metal pieces make when clanking against one another. I suggest clankery as the English equivalent.
Though I love the -monger words, I could certainly get behind clankery
@@stearnd3612 nice
'Scissors' pronounced in Greek sounds just like scissor blades in action.
In italian we have "chincaglieria", meaning exactly the same thing. Now i'm curious: french got it from us or the other way around?
@@stevecarter8810 what about a clankmonger
I like the phrase "I thou thee" as an indication that you're no longer treating them formally
Ah yes! "I thou thee, thou traitor!" was reportedly the prosecutor's insult to Sir Walter Raleigh.
My maternal grandfather , from York, used this form routinely
Spanish has a rough equivalent - in the use and forms of "tutear", I think. You can use "tu", or not use "tu", depending on the circumstances, and you can announce your intention to stop using it too.
@@truthray2885 German has the same: Duzen vs. Siezen. I guess any community that has such a differentiation will develop some way of talking about it.
rehello is simpler than rebonjour
The one word I want to see introduced to english is "la flemme". It basically means that you're too tired to do something and you don't want to do it at the same time. For example:
-Can you do the dishes?
-Flemme.
You don't have enough energy to do something like chores or homework, something that you don't really like doing.
Yeah ! Same, I always have to traduce it into ''lazyness'' but it's not really the same meaning, eventhough it's close
"I don't feel like searching for the energy to do that" (or even to do anything). Can we say that ? 😅
@@--ZaPersonally, I think the term "Meh ..." Is close enough, doesn't exactly mean the same thing but in this context people could understand ...
Sounds a bit to casual or lazy for the Sorbonne level French Rob is using here
The expression in English would be "can't be bothered" or, in a more vulgar way, "can't be arsed/assed"
Hi, french person here. I just wanna add that we, in fact, have a word equivalent to Make. It’s Fabriquer. But we only use it when we are making an object at home, like a DIY, OR when we make a product, like in a factory. Exemple : Ils fabriquent des chaises = They are making chairs
We also have fabricate/fabrication in English. It refers to the process of turning a raw material into a finished product (or component of a thing). It is often used to emphasize that something is/was made from scratch, rather than being assembled from pre-existing parts.
Unlike the French fabriquer, the English fabricate is generally only used when a power tool/machine is involved in making a thing. Crafting an object by hand is not fabrication! I don't know why...
But it doesn’t work for everything. On ne fabrique pas le repas… but they make dinner in English.
@@mgg5418 For other purposes, we have specific verbs. “Making a meal” would be “cuisiner” or even “préparer un repas”. “Faire”is used because it has a generic meaning. It is fast to use if we’re being lazy.
@@mgg5418 on ne fait pas le repas non plus, on fait à manger (do some cooking?)
Great list! I completely agree with your picks!
A few notes:
- “Chez” can sometimes mean “with regard to” or “from the perspective/mindset of”, such as “C’est un mot étrange chez les anglophones.” (“It’s a weird word from the perspective of English speakers.”)
- “Si” can also mean “so” as an intensifier, such as “C’est si bon !” (“It’s so good!”).
- I think of the difference of “savoir” and “connaître” is like the difference between recollection and familiarity. You can recall a fact, or you can have familiarity with a person or a place. (Old French used to use “connaître” as a euphemism for procreating with someone, because of the intimacy involved.)
Thanks for the video!
Si can also be an adverb or a conjonction, si! 😊
Naître means to be birthed, so I would suggest that there is a creative action in "connaitre". It is an évolutive knowledge.
Or conocer (to know people or places) versus saber (to know facts) in Spanish
the "chez" you mention is quite perfectly translated by "among"
Actually, the use of "connaitre" and "savoir" is grammatical :
- connaitre + name/noun
- savoir + verb or clause
Omgggg you just helped me out with tutoyer!! I live in a French area now, and an email I just got the guy said "tu peux me tutoyer," I thought he meant I can phone him rather than email, but he means I can be less formal with him!!! Thank you so much, now I don't have to phone him and speak broken French 😂😂😂
French speaker here : i'm curious, what in this mail made you think he meant "to phone you" instead of "using the less formal you" ?
I used to get Tu peux dire TU maintenant
@@gylfie7 I had used Google translate because I had no idea what he meant 😅
@@abassoonist ooh okay makes sense. I guess you got something similar to "you can call me" and you understood it that way
@@gylfie7 tu peux me tutoyer in translate came out as "you can speak to me" and b/c we don't have a tu vs. vous thing in English, that thought never crossed my mind. In the context, I had assumed he meant to call him rather than email, b/c it was an e-mail about figuring out some scheduling stuff.
No! The first word we need to steal is "Detrompe-toi!" Unfool yourself. I was so thrilled to read and understand this in a book. If I say "unfool yourself," everyone understands it, but unfool is not yet an English word. We need this one.
A double-entendre! I love it.
@@trevinbeattie4888 Indeed, tres piquant.
I did wonder whether we should make up English equivalents (e.g. unfool). Steal the French idea rather than steal the French word.
Such must likely wait after the 🇺🇸 election…
So use " Unfool " Just for your Own pleasure !
C'est ce que je fais avec des Mots Anglais, Thaïs ou Tibétains juste pour le Plaisir Mental ...
5:08 Some french people do actually call gouter that. "Quatre-heures" (I've probably mispelt that) is what my family in northwest france would call the same thing.
Here in Québec we use a different word. We call it a collation.
I spent a few years in France. It greatly enhanced my English vocabulary.
Paradox
@@sunquake Non, c'est _INDUBITABLE._ Ça ne veut pas dire éjaculateur précoce, seulement que le doute ne m'habite pas...
@@sunquake Yes, paradox is a French word. Most of the fancy-pants words in English are of French origin, I would say.
@@dgphi Actually no. Paradox is a Greek word and it was introduced to English via Greek and Late Latin.
@SylviaSánchez, etymonline says it went Greek -> Latin -> French -> English. The French do have the word "paradoxe".
My first language is English. I learned French in school growing up in Québec, Canada. I was taught that, in French, I should address people I don't know and those who are my elders or superiors as "vous."
Where I work, the vast majority speak French, we are very informal and address each other as "tu" regardless of our relative positions within the organisation. However, when I am dealing with a rude employee (of equal or lower rank), I will begin to *_vouvoyer_* . That way (1) they cannot complain that I am being disrespectful; and (2) it is also a very gentle way of putting them in their place without actually putting them in their place.
Vouvoyer also put distance between you and the person you are talking to. Si ressorting to vouvoiement is often seen as less agressive un conflicts.
it's similar in German. Sie/du for the formal/informal form of address are still in use but even in professional settings the formal version is falling out of use rapidly. the Swedes have passed this phase long ago. let's see how long it will take the Koreans to shelve some of their three (formerly five) levels of politeness in addressing people.
I was taught that in France you should address people with "vous" by default unless you know them well. I was then taught "tu" is often the default in Québec (and Acadia?) outside of formal settings.
(Vous versus tu can definitely be used in passive-aggressive ways, but if an English speaker does it, they are usually assumed to be linguistically confused.)
The closest thing to switching to formal to remind someone would be like parents calling their kids by their full name.
Getting super polite/formal can be a weapon in itself.
My favourite word that I haven't found a translation for in English is apprivoiser. It's the process of getting to know each other with mutual respect, and slowly moving the boundaries of privacy towards being more intimate.
It can be used for two people, but its original meaning is aimed at describing the process of befriending a wild animal. But apprivoiser is the step before becoming friends. Juste being comfortable around each other.
I often see it translated as to tame, but those words are in fact exact opposites.
That's a lovely one.
@@RobWords
- I can’t play with you,” said the fox. I'm not apprivoisé
- “What does “apprivoiser” mean?
- "It’s something too forgotten,” said the fox. It means “Create connections…”
- Create links?
- Of course, said the fox. To me you are still just a little boy, just like a hundred thousand little boys. And I don't need you. And you don't need me either. For you I am only a fox like a hundred thousand foxes. But, if you apprivoise me, we will need each other. You will be unique to me in the world. I will be unique in the world for you...
The Little Prince
❤
Well, I have to completely disagree on this one.
Let me tell you that you have a very romanticized view on "apprivoiser", which is actually not in agreement with the true meaning of this verb.
"Apprivoiser" is, indeed, "to tame". It means : to make someone (presumably an animal) less fearful, more docile. Mostly used towards a feral being.
The way that you use it towards a person is, in fact, veeeery figurative.
@@Casimir2811 I guess we use this verb differently in french. I would use dresser in french to translate to tame.
Apprivoiser in my opinion is best explained by Saint Exupéry in Le petit prince through the words of the fox. It means to create bonds between people. And this bonding makes each other special for the other one. It's not the domination of one over the other.
I really enjoyed this. I'm québécois so French is my main language. Yet I'm always learning something new in your videos.
Osti d'criss d'calisse !
Tutoiement / vouvoiement is a real pain in the neck in the context of movie dubbing. Oftentimes protagonists meet and they’d typically be vouvoying each other, but then they start to fall in love and you have to switch to tutoying.. but the original English dialogues do not explain this change of course. The general convention is, I believe, to make them abruptly tutoy each other once they had sex
The actual correct way to dub them would be for them to dance around the issue awkwardly, trying to find ways to express themselves without using either, like normal people actually do
@@Flobyby so changing the script to avoid them addressing each other with pronouns despite the original doing none of that?
This is a general issue for German dubbing as well, and it introduces another level of intimacy that is most often not present in the original version. It seems to be a matter of interpretation of the German dialog authors when this is supposed to happen. This was quite obvious in series like "Star Trek" with couples like Riker/Troi or Dax/Worf where they kept the "Siezen" (saying "Sie", the formal address) for some time even after they shared the mattress. In particular, this is often used to disguise the relationship to others, keeping "Sie" when talking in groups, and then switching to "du" in private moments.
it gets even worse for eastern Asia where you have varying degrees of familiarity, formality, seniority and other variables that affect the way one speaks to another
there's no better way to reflect that than leaving these honorifics untouched IMO, but that still doesn't help with changes of grammar and multitudes of simple I/me they use
@@HappyBeezerStudios Umberto Eco would probably go for that. In his book on translation, he mentions that translating may involve finding new ways of creating a culturally coded feeling. Languages that use formal and informal speech usually also have an arsenal of evasive speech patterns, like switching into passive voice, or adressing the other obliquely via the 1st/2nd person plural or 3rd person singular. If there is a way to utilize that to create a certain feeling, why shouldn't you? Another way of course is to try and communicate the lack of distinction in the original language by having everyone use informal speech. That's usually what is done when dubbing Skandinavian languages into German, because it fits the typical Skandinavian vibe. We don't really do it all that much when translating English.
Contrary to Julie's opinion, I would say that the word "dépaysement" is almost always used in its positive sense, and not necessarily when you're abroad; to translate "homesickness" the French rather use “avoir le mal du pays”. By the way I had never realized how clever the word "si" was... Anyway, thanks for this video, as always it was clever and inspiring.
I think the closest English idiom is « culture shock », but the connotation is almost always negative. I grew up in an English-speaking country, and it doesn't surprise me that we have no term for « the pleasure of finding yourself in unfamiliar surroundings ».
In the end, it's one of the saddest contrasts between English and French. The French language and culture seems to anticipate pleasure in everything and everyone, whereas the English language and culture seems to anticipate nothing but pain and humiliation.
It is a bit positive as it implies a new, enriching experience, however, it also has a slightly negative connotation as it implies unfamiliarity, confusion and loss of all usual reference points (I wanted to say repères, but I couldn't find an accurate translation of that meaning so here's maybe another word to steal or maybe it's just that I can't find the right word).
Yes it is almost always used with a positive connotation but as it is neutral, it can have a negative meaning too. Meaning désarroi, désorientation. It used to mean "exil".
@@geronimus-prime The phrase "culture shock" is more commonly used negatively, but I'm never felt that it was exclusively a negative concept. It's more commonly used negatively because generally people will prefer their home over an unfamiliar place, so most culture shocks are not viewed favorably.
But the concept itself isn't inherently negative.
Maybe "a sense of displacement" would be a better translation? A feeling that you're not in a familiar place. Although that usually comes across as a bit negative too, a mildly disturbing sensation.
oh, interesting! As a Welsh person we have tu and vous (ti & chi) and, now I realise we have savoir and connaître - nabod (to know a person or place) and gwybod (to know facts etc). Great stuff Rob, thanks, diolch, merci.
Excellent !
Not that surprising since the French language has many Celtic influences due to the Gauls reining over most of France way back!
In fact, there's a great video here on TH-cam about French with its Latin AND Celtic influence. Look for "Why French sounds so unlike other Romance languages".
Flâner is not knowing where you are going but acknowledging and enjoying everything that surrounds you.
I’ve never seen an Englishman so in love with French 😂 mais j’adore
He's well-motivated.
His French wife might have something to do with it haha
@@FrankBrennosTheGreatest, french wife?. He is married? How did you know?
He has a video where he's in Japan for their honeymoon.
@@BrayanGonzalez-jj4gv He mentioned it in a couple of videos. We also see her in them.
I recall hearing that in older forms of English "Yay" and "nay" filled that infirmative role
I was thinking that as well
I think you mean "yea"
In the Midwest we have either
No, yeah
or
Yeah, no
@@wearwolf2500 we should bring that back!
Or the ol' reliable "yeah huh" and "nuh uh"
As a native French speaker, I really want English to steal "justement". It's so impossible to translate in English, so difficult to explain, yet so useful, it drives me insane.
I think the best way I could explain it is, "justement" is to "exactement" (exactly) what "but" is to "and", in the sense that both "and" and "but" add two pieces of information together, but "but" adds this idea that the second piece goes against the first in some way. "Justement" is a way to confirm what someone just said, but while disagreeing with an assumption or a premise behind what they just said, or a conclusion that person is deriving from what they just said. It's kind of like saying "Yes, that is true, but that's why you're wrong". In a non-rude way, that is. It can also be, without necessarily disagreeing with what's being said, a way to agree with someone while adding information they are not aware of that might change their implied conclusion.
Examples:
"Well, it wouldn't have happened if you sent that e-mail before it was too late."
"Justement, I did it a day before the limit." (Here, I agree with the logical implication that it would have happened if I didn't send it on time, and I agree that it shouldn't have happened if I sent it in time, but I disagree with the assumption that I didn't do it in time)
"These plants are going to die without shade."
"Justement, that's why I bought that roof-thing on Amazon. It should arrive in a few days." (Here, I'm agreeing with the general fact, but I'm adding extra information to explain why the possible implied conclusion that they will die won't happen; in this case, my interlocutor might even be aware of the purchase, but didn't connect the dots)
You CAN express those things in English, individually, but English lacks a multi-purpose word that works exactly like "justement", and the formulations you could use in English to translate "justement" are also sometimes (or often) used in ways where they don't match with the uses of "justement", and that's what drives me crazy with this. In the second example, you could formulate "That's exactly why [...]", but in other contexts, "exactly" can be used in ways that would be translated as "exactement" rather than "justement" (including in similar grammatical contexts), cases where you just fully agree without really adding information unknown to your conversation partner. In the first example, you could say something like "But that's the thing", but it's more like an expression you use in a very specific context, an expression where the individual words have their own meaning and, even in this arrangement, the whole thing could mean something else in another context, and it's all very different from just having a single unambiguous word like "justement".
Maybe I'm missing something very obvious that would work in English, feel free to tell me.
EDIT: Ok, I'm going to address a few of the responses.
Someone said that "justement" is like "actually" and "exactly" in a single meaning, and I think that's a beautiful way to say it.
On responses that suggested things like "I know", "Well, yeah", "Yes, and", "Indeed", "Precisely", "True, but", "Rightly so":
While these do work for the second example, they don't really work for the first example. These expressions express total agreement with the previous statement, which works with "These plants are going to die without shade". This sentence is just a logical statement that I can't disagree with. The part I disagree with is merely the unsaid: "Therefore, your plants are going to die". So, there isn't really a problem saying something that just agrees with the actually said part.
But in the first example, the sentence straight up presupposes that I didn't send the e-mail, which just isn't true (so the sentence doesn't actually reflect reality and needs correcting). Here, I actually disagree with both the premise and the conclusion expressed in the sentence, so I can't just say something that fully agrees with it.
But also (and that's a comment I responded to directly but I want to highlight it here as well), something that just fully goes against what was said (specifically for the first example), like "actually", fails to express that I agree with the logic ("What you said would be true if the premise was actually correct"). "justement" expresses both agreement and disagreement in some way, so an English word that goes only one way or the other fails to properly convey what "justement" does.
One important thing I forgot to mention that also goes against a lot of those suggestions is the fact you can use "justement" in the middle of discourse, instead of as a response. I could be showing my garden to someone, and let's assume this person knows I bought some roof-thing on Amazon, but the purpose is yet unknown to them. As I am explaining things about my garden, I then point out "These plants are going to die without shade, and that's justement why I bought that roof-thing." In this case, the purpose of "justement" (on top of connecting the knowledge of me buying the roof-thing with the new info about the plants) is not so much to express disagreement, but to express something that counteracts what I just said in some way, kinda like a word like "but" can do.
The suggestions provided, for the most part, cannot work in the middle of discourse like that. Of course, a simple "exactly" would perfectly work here in English. But I feel you still miss a little bit of the nuance of "justement", because in this example, you could also say "exactement" in French, but I feel like it doesn't mean the exact same thing as "justement" even in this context. It doesn't really have the same "countering" side to it. I don't know. As I said, it's hard to explain this word; when I use it, I don't think about those things, it's all just vibes.
Someone did however suggest "about that", which I think might be the best candidate so far. It doesn't actually mean the same as "justement" per se, but it does work well as a way to introduce a sentence correcting some assumption, without feeling like it's immediately going completely against what has been said (like an "actually" would). It might still be difficult to use in the middle of discourse, though.
Edit 2: Someone also suggested "except", which is also a very good candidate, but it might be a bit too confrontational for when you actually fully agree with the statement, as it is the case in the second example I initially provided. It's also not going to work as well in the middle of discourse, at least not in the way I've shown.
Great examples.
In English sometimes we say, "actually" for "justement" but it is too negative since it lacks the part where you agree in part with the original speaker.
I suppose you could say, "I agree and that is why I bought the roof thingy..."
Or "100%"
Such a funny way to say I agree.
@@LookingForAnotherPlanetJustement manages to say ‘actually’ and ‘exactly’ as a single meaning. What a great word, English really could use it. Maybe something like ‘jusmenly’ could be used (I know ment = ly but just translating it directly as justly wouldn’t work since that has a completely different meaning already)
The nearest thing I can think of is "well, yeah".
"These plants will die without shade."
"Well yeah, thats why I bought a roof-thing on Amazon."
Source: midwest American English
As an English-wired brain surviving in France, I know exactly how you feel when the words at your disposal don't assemble into ideas in the way your brain is most used to. But all the same, your command of English seems impeccable!
_Justement..._
I think the idiom you're looking for is a special case of the phrase: _I know._ It has a special music to it, very similar to the inflection you would give « mais si ! » in French. But it doesn't do entirely what you want, in that depending on your tone, it can indeed sound belligerent, or even rude.
I think this is why anglophones often need to explain to each other that friendly French conversations can feel more hostile than they're used to. Because French has these rhetoric structures that allow you to disagree without seeming rude. Whereas in English, the only way to be sure not to offend is to hide your disagreement.
Anyway...
_"Well, it wouldn't have happened if you sent that e-mail before it was too late."_
I *_know._* That's why I did it a day before the deadline.
_"These plants are going to die without shade."_
I *_know._* That's why I bought that roof-thing on Amazon...
I would use the ''word' mmm... to indicate general acknowledgement of the OP's point which, if using the appropriate tone, would imply the same thing as 'justement' before going on to add my own two Penn'orth.
The algorithm brought me to your channel because I am very interested in linguistics. (The first video that was recommended to me was your “guide to our aphabeth”).
But now I was happy to realize that you even make videos that give me new inspiration for my French learning. Je suis ravie!
The explanation you used for ‘oui’ and ‘si’ is just perfect - easy to understand and precise. I think I will use this explanation soon to explain ‘ja’ and ‘doch’ to my friend, who is currently learning German.
As a Frenchman who has lived most of his life in English speaking countries I very much enjoyed this video.
May I add the word "cuisiner". It doesn't simply mean to cook. That's the word "cuire". Cuisiner is to make or prepare food, of which cooking might be part of it.
No you can’t say je vais cuisiner une salade… je vais préparer une salade….
@AnthonyGrini you're right. Like you wouldn't say, je vais te cuisiner un steak. It has a meaning which is difficult convey in English because it doesn't have an equivalent. C'est bien cuit and C'est bien cuisiner have different meanings, but in English there is just It's cooked well. It would be nice to have an English equivalent.
As a French quite fluent in English, this video is also useful. It gave me the opportunity to remind me of formulations to translate French sentences in English, and what we can’t say!
Comme quoi? As tu des exemples?
Like the awkwardness when trying to say tea time for gouter! What else can we say?
@@kevinc9597 personally i say "time for a snack" "snack time" but yeah it feels wrong, it's never gonna hit the same 😅
@@Sol-miaalso snack time can be anytime during the day, in front of a movie, etc. Le goûter is in the afternoon, around 16h00.
A2SB? Aftersoon sweet snack break. 🤣
17:40 As a native French speaker, we can indeed use "faire" for a lot of meanings, but there are also verbs like "confectionner/préparer" which can only be applied when making something
Another one: "fabriquer", which translates to making. So there are plenty of nuances for do/make in french.
@@TTxR2 A proper translation to fabriquer would be "to craft" I think.
@@vorastrixaridarastrixiejir403 usually, to make = faire/fabriquer ; to craft = réaliser/confectionner. But these overlap as much in English as in French. The key difference being the creativity involved in the crafting = la réalisation.
"Faire" le nemesis des profs de français dans les rédactions 💀🙏
And "fabriquer" too. :)
Love your work, Rob! I discovered you first by watching Deutsche Welle while using their content for my Spanish classes and learning German myself. Just watching regular English DW, I would see you often reporting. Most objective news on television and the web.
I vividly remember when I first went to work in Paris. I didn't know about rebonjour, but I was soon introduced to it when I greeted a colleague for the second time in a morning and he quickly (and somewhat firmly) corrected me with a rebonjour. It introduced me to the idea that French people keep much closer track of who they have met and greeted than English speakers do. (and then there's the handshakes...oh, boy)
Yes, that's it. I was admonished for saying 'bonjour' the second time I saw somebody in a day; my 'bonjour' was interpreted as though I couldn't be bothered to remember that I had already greeted that person earlier in the day. Of course, if you want to get literal then 'bonjour' and 'hello' are not the same thing. Would one be admonished for saying 'salut' a second time or "devrait-on dire resalut"?
@@sfnumis9286some people actually say "resalut" ou "recoucou" which is even less formal. The re being the important part, since we think indeed that it's important to remember who you've met earlier. I actually never realised it was so common before this video.
Je n'aime pas les Poignées de Main ( à la Française ) parce que les Mains sont pleines de Doigts !
Je Préfère le " Waï " à la Façon Thaï parce que c'est plus PROPRE et plus RESPECTUEUX ...
@@patrickdelomais496 Because hands are full of fingers ?? I see a lot more reasons to dislike handshakes than the presence of fingers lol
@@sfnumis9286 Today we simply say RE.
In Italian we have "sapere" and "conoscere" both meaning "to know". And "fare" for both "do" and "make". Same as French.
Same in Spanish: "saber" and "conocer", and "to do/to make" would be "hacer"
Does Italian have similar equivalents for the other words? I guess not "flaner" because that's a Parisian invention and concept, but maybe the others exist in Italian?
Same with Romanian. A şti and a cunoaşte. It's the same for all Romance languages
I was indeed thinking this during the video. Thank you for stating it!
interestingly english does have close words to either, "sapience" and "conscience", both obviously loanwords. And both in context of higher level thinking.
11:43
In Bengali, we also have a similar distinction with three levels of formality for 'you' just like French has 'tu' and 'vous'. We use:
তুই (tui): Very informal, like 'tu', used with close friends or younger people.
তুমি (tumi): Polite, neutral, comparable to 'tu' in less formal situations but respectful.
আপনি (apni): Formal, similar to 'vous', used with elders or in professional settings to show respect.
It’s interesting how different languages express formality in similar ways!
There's another level in French politeness, which is rarely use outside diplomatic events and very high end service venues, where people will talk to the high rank person in the third person and the pronoun is replace by Monsieur or Madame. Translated into English, it sounds like "Do Monsieur desire to dine in the garden tonight?" I know they have these kind of uncommon high politeness level in East Asia too, I'm curious to know if you have these in South Asia.
@@mariannerichard1321 the extreme levels of third-person politeness seen in diplomatic French or Japanese aren't commonly used in everyday South Asian languages, formal settings or traditional ceremonies might employ certain linguistic markers to show reverence or extreme politeness.
@mariannerichard1321
In English language shows and movies involving royalty or nobility, subjects are often seen addressing royalty in a similar manner, using a form of the person's title (e.g., My Lord, or Your Majesty) instead of saying "you". I'm not exactly how accurate that is, since here in the US we don't have an aristocracy or any sort of peerage.
@@THall-vi8cp how about in courts of law, or legislative assemblies?
@allthe1
Not even in those circumstances. While we do call judges "Your Honor", and our legislators "Congressman" or "Senator", we don't use them as a substitute for "you" or address those people as if we're talking about them in the third person. So for a judge, we don't say, "Yes, sir." We say, "Yes, Your Honor." With our legislators, where we might say, "sir" or "ma'am" or "Mr." or "Mrs.", we just use their title.
And the way you explain the difference between “oui” and “si” is simply brilliant.
As a French, that was very sweet to watch.
And very precise too.
As a French what
@@Francophone974 As a French what what
@@alenett79 Don't you love the feeling of being a French what what sometimes
I’m so glad to see goûter on this list. I studied a bit of French and learned this word and I’ve used it ever since. I taught it to my 4yo and he knows when he’s allowed to have something sweet “goûter time” he doesn’t bother me all day for sweet things so it really works. Anyway I sometimes forget that it’s not part of English so hopefully now it can be, 🎉 😊
In France to replace "goûter " we also say it’s time of "4 heures" or "4 hours"
Indeed we make it a word meaning gouter: "un quatre heures"
We also have the equivalent in the morning ~10 am: "la collation" 😅 But it's less popular than the goûter 😋
A mid-afternoon snack
@@pioline741 4 h is a misnommer (school stops at 16.30) and so is "goûter" quand t'es dégoûté . With responsible parents, you're thoroughly disgusted at least 5 days a week. Unless you think a Caribbean fruit basket will be all the rage for your birthday party...an apple a day keeps the smile away.
J'adore ce mec! Non seulement je comprends tout ce qu'il dit, ce qui n'est pas peu dire! Son niveau de langue est séduisant, son accent british m'enrobe, je veux parler anglais, si, mais comme lui. Je comprends, grâce à lui, maintenant, le sens de THOU et de THEE qui m'échappait depuis toujours. Merci Rob, merci beaucoup!
And I am pleased he referenced the quakers as using thee and thought. We have many Amish colonies across America that use these pronouns as well as Pennsylvania dutch.
@@BillPatten-zh6lxOK, edit "thought" to "thou" in your comment. Me thinks, yes?
Thine will be done.
@@garryferrington811Is "will" a verb or a noun in your sentence. At first I assumed it was a noun, in which case "thine" should be "thy". (Try replacing with my or mine.). If the sentence is a response to a question like "will his job get done or will mine?", it is correct.
Et j’ai compris tous que vous avez dit. Merci à mes professeurs de Français!
I live in France, I am French, I wanted to clarify that the use of "vous" when the relationship evolves can also reflect a distancing of the person in certain regions. It can become hurtful, especially if the person we are speaking with tries to use the familiar form "tu" or vice versa. Especially in Flanders where the informal form is very quick or even immediate, it is linked to the proximity of the Belgians who speak Flemish and do not have this differentiation.
In any case, thank you very much for this lovely view of our language which allowed me to understand why the French are so "romantic" for the rest of the world. Living here all the time we forget it!
"Bouquiner" is to reading what "flâner" is to walking. Also, we use the verb "dépayser" in the legal vocabulary when a case is removed from a court and transferred to another jurisdiction in order to ensure the impartiality of the court.
Are you sure? I've never heard "dépayser" used like that ever. That would be "extrader"
@@hugolouessard3914 no, "extrader" means to send one person to another country where they will face trial. "Dépayser" is used in the legal sense, for instance when a case in Bordeaux is taken to a court in Paris
@@hugolouessard3914 yes, I am. Look it up: "dépaysement judiciaire". I hope this helps.
I think gourmandise might be to eating what bouquinage is to reading and flânerie to waking!
@@hugolouessard3914Dépayser peut signifier dessaisir un tribunal et renvoyer l'affaire devant une autre cour.
In Québec, flâner is used to refered as hanging out, do nothing, sometimes in some prohibited place.
For example, in my childhood school, there was an "interdit de flâner" near the passing of school buses
Flâner is present in High German as "flanieren", loaned from French. I think it's a bit fallen out of style in Germany, but is still used in Switzerland in Swiss High German as well as many Swissgerman dialects. In my dialect it would most likely sound like "flaniëre" to a French speaker.
yes, in this case it means loitering.
@@Andreas_42 I think my parents would still use 'flanieren' when we're on a city trip and just walking around the pedestrian zone of the old city and looking at all the little shops and cafés.
This was very funny for me, a native France French speaker, when I went to Quebec. Like, how can you forbid "flâner" ? Next, they will ban daydreaming and gazing at the sky? ^^
@@HermelJaworski That seems like such a North-American thing. Loitering as a concept is just weird. Let people just hang out outside.
In rural Germany, "Bushaltestelle" (bus stop) is a whole activity/hobby, because there is not much to do, so teens just go to bus stops to hang out with each other. There is a bench to sit on and they can drink and talk without their parents watching.
If there were loitering laws they'd have even less possibilities to do anything.
22:10 An interesting fact: In Russian we have the very word 'bouquiniste' (but of course spelled in cyrillic) with the very same meaning - 'a seller of the second hand books' (It's naturally a French loan-word)
My favourite russian loan word will always be Jalousie though. Such a great one haha
We have more in common than what they think ...😉
Thank you for telling us!
@@Hazakura-in which means "window blinds", yeah ))))))
Fun fact: More than 3000 French words in Bulgarian , but written in cyrillic alphabet 😊
As a French, I really enjoyed this vid especially for le goûter which his quite important in French culture (for kids most of the time) and "chez" cause I remember having trouble learning the " 's " in english class 😅
As a French person, here is a word I couldn't find a translation for, "la flemme". It's slang to express a sort of laziness, which is not negative. For example, if you are seated in a constable place, and you need to get up to do a moderately important tasks, you can say : "Pff, j'ai la flemme de me lever" or jsute "Flemme"
I always want to wish people "bon courage" and I don't have a proper equivalent.
@@rosiebowers1671 Keep heart is old fashioned. Coeur/ courage, same root. Like Bon voyage n'est pas SAFE travels..Slight shift, same spirit.
@@rosiebowers1671 "Good luck" est celui qui se rapproche le plus
bored out of your mind that's what your looking for.
@@Nohraz not at all la flemme ! you couldn't be bothered if it doesn't matter.you
just yawn if asked for help that you may grant or not. Being unenthousiastic or lazy/ deficient is key. It's mostly a teenager thing. a form of lazy you can afford/ are permitted. Slugabed fits flemmard in the morning. in reverse, slugabed is magnificent and has no french equivalent. On peut faire la grasse mâtinée. It's not boring. Borderline necessary if you partied all night.. La flemme de se lever. aucune motivation.
There is one word that actually MUST become a thing in English from French : papouilles. "Faire des papouilles" (to do papouilles) means to slowly and extremely gently graze someone's skin. It is a very sweet and affectionate gesture, that feels amazing for everyone involved. And anytime I grew close enough with a non French speaking person to do papouilles, they were surprised it was an actual thing that people can do, and that has a name. So everyone who doesn't know this word yet, take a page from the universal language of love, and do papouilles! (consensually of course)
caress?
@@SuperXzm it's a little more intimate and familiar than that.
"butterfly kisses?"
You can pretty much translate it by "petting" and "to pet".
Caress: yes and no. A papouille is a caress, but not all caresses are papouilles. Papouilles are extremely soft, barely touching each other.
Butterfly kisses: yes, but with your fingers, anywhere on the other person's body, instead of using your eyelashes. So again, not really.
Petting: I actually never used that word in that context, and had to look up what it would mean there. It seems to me that it doesn't convey that meaning of extreme softness either, while also being too sexual. You can do papouilles with friends, while petting seems to be a bit more "involved".
Instead of adopting cognise (ew) or stealng connaitre, we just need to resurrect ken.
That's still used in Scottish, and is cognate with the Norse languages. In Danish “kende” is “connaitre” and “vide” is “savoir”. “Vide” leads to “visdom”, which the English have as “wisdom”.
@@rasmis and then suddenly, english rebecomes closer to dutch to :-) .
easy peasy : connaitre = kennen,
savoir = weten.
something you learned for a test or so you 'ken' , think out of your head.
savoir = weten, to really know, = to know by heart :)
connaitre = know
savoir = grok
Resurrect Ken? Did Barbie kill him?
Similar in German:
connaitre = kennen (ich kenne, du kennst, er/sie/es kennt, wir kennen, ihr kennt, sie kennen)
savoir = wissen (ich weiß, du weißt, er/sie/es weiß, wir wissen, ihr wisst, sie wissen)
I'm French, and thanks to your video I just got the most comprehensive explanation of the difference between "Oui" and "Si" 🙂
you certainly have a penchant for finding these words!
👏
Hi
@@RobWords You also have a penchant for our French language.
Just don't be shy, and take a 3-weeks vacation in our beautiful country. Like the South-West of France, you would like it, half of England's retirees are already there, anyway. 😉
When did you start watching RobWords?
Chapeau (to which you could say “touché”)
"Si", as the german "doch", is not just infirmative. It's more, because it does not just infirm what you're saying, it does affirm the contrary. I'd call it counteraffirmative.
Btw doch - though 😂
Same for "si", it only infirm the negative, you can't use it to get out of a "did you stop cheating on your partner?" type of question.
Also, I am happy to have discovered the verb "infirmative", but I think that "counter affirmative" better explains "si". Like in this exchange:
Policeman to thief : "Tu as volé la pomme"
The thief : "Non"
The witness : "Si!" (yes, you did steal the apple)
I've always liked to say it means "On the contrary: yes, actually" - which I think covers the full scope of the meaning, so beautifully rendered in the lil word "si"
In swedish we use the word jo as an infirmative/counter affirmative ja (yes)
In swedish we use the words dua and nia as verbs for calling someone informal / formal you. But it hasn't really been practiced for the laat 50 years when swedes collectivley switched to calling everyone informal you.
@@_Shadbolt_ Nice! The English translation of *sì* is *au contraire* !
Rob: “English doesn’t have a single-word way to negate a negative statement.”
Me: “Yuh-huh”
I always loved that the word _Connaître_ or la _connaissance_ is so remarkable by its intimate etymology. It is composed of the prefix "co- / con-" meaning "with" or "together" and "naissance" which is "birth".
So connaître quelqu'un (to know someone) is like if a relationship with someone is to be born together.
Old English used to have the connaitre/savoir distinction with cunnan/wittan. 'Know' evolved from a third word that kind of did double duty for both senses.
in german: "kennen" and "wissen".
The word "ken" (from cunnan) still shows up in some English dialects. English also held onto the word (archaically) for some phrases, such as, "Quantum mechanics is beyond my ken".
Kunne/vite in Norwegian. There's also kjenne, meaning to know as in be familiar/acquainted with (I know Paris, I know her)
I believe we ended up with 'knowledge' and 'wisdom', but neither retains the full set of possible forms if that is the case.
In dutch we also have kennen / weten.
'Ik weet hoe laat het is' (I know the time)
'Ik ken hem' (I know him)
I'm a French learner and it feels so good to actually know what you're talking about! Great list 💙🤍❤
Bonne chance pr apprendre le français 💀🙏
Ça peux vrmt devenir un bordel avec les exeptions parfois
(comme les lettres muettes, mais au moins contrairement à l'anglais on utilise des accents et ca respectebdes regles claires et une lettre ne peux pas faire genre 3838273810102 sons différent comme avec enough through though ect ☠️, jsp pk je dis ca, mais voila)
Okay, I'm only 3 words in and I'm now convinced that if the english and french ever merged their cultures we would finally have hobbits on earth. :D
Avec pleasure
judging by my life in the pharmacy we already do. I regularly see prescriptions with stuff like "Take three times a day with breakfast." And sometimes respond to doctors with "Is patient a hobbit?"
@@pharmesq I believe even Hobbits only have two breakfasts in the normal course of events... Though, arguably, if you're not snacking in between, any meal could rightly be called breakfast..
When he said "Fours" I immediately thought "What about second breakfast? Or Elevensies?"
Yes ! Do the French have elevenses ?
Très rigolo !
May I suggest yet another word: chiner. That's what you do chez les bouquinistes: you are searching for no book in particular. Same thing at an antique shop. It's an opportunistic way of searching. On chine d'ailleurs en flânant. It's like an animal foraging for food: it doesn't know what it'll get. It'll pick what it finds.
I love that, watching english people learning about the french language makes me better (as a french person) at english.
Really fun video!
Here in Quebec we have the verb « magasiner » that derives from the English « to shop » and has no equivalent in European French. We can either « magasiner » or « faire du magasinage » to refer to shopping, window-shopping or to look for good deals. It is interesting to see that some regional expressions have no exact translation in the main or standard dialect.
Would you say you have heard the words flâner and bouquineur in Canadian French? I haven't, probably also due to regional differences.
@@jstreutker flâner is quite common but with a negative connotation, it's used as "loiterring".
@@francb1634 Thanks!
In metropolitan French "magasiner" would be to to stock up shelves at a shop or manage stocks.
We just use "faire du shopping" anyway, so it's not like we need a overload "magasiner".
@@VaasrefEn sachant que Shopping provient du vieux français Chopé
Great list! I'd add "tiens" (literally "take") which is much easier than "here you are, have this". Also, "racler" specifically in the context of finishing all the food on your plate: "racle ton assiette!". The original word means "scrape" and gives the fabulous cheese Raclette it's name.
I would rather say "saucer"
A bit weird to say "racler son assiette", sounds brutal
As a french person, I enjoyed that you reversed french and english to tell that we do not differentiate make and do !
12:45 in english you once had "thou". In German, we still have "Du" und "Sie". And our words for the act of adressing something with one of them is "Duzen" or "Siezen".
When Robert Cecil accused the Earl of Essex at the trial for his rebellion against Elizabeth I., he reportedly screamed at him
"I thou thee, thou traitor!"
So, there even was a word for 'tutoyer' in English.
@@kaibroeking9968 The fun part about English grammar. You can turn anything into a verb by just... sticking it in the verb slot in the sentence, and the grammar will generally work. ... now, whether your intended meaning is coherent or not might require a little more caution, but it will be a gramatically correct sentence!
@@laurencefraser Yep, that's called "verbing" a word.
@@mrcydonia neat that do describe verbing a verb you have to verb a word.
I was a German minor in college and am now learning Norwegian, which thankfully has done away with the formal “you.”
Bouquiner, le goûter, flâner, être dépaysé … all these words have a positive, warm undertone, they imply some simple pleasure. Maybe our friends from across the Channel would, by adopting them, benefit from the start of a dangerous laisser-faire, aka to become more relaxed and to give in to simple pleasures. Peace and love to the world!
Exactly !
“I’ve got to stop undressing during videos” has got to be the best out of context RobWords quote so far 😂
Slava BAGUETTE 🥖
I come from a country - Canada - where French is a minority and where French speakers are sometimes discriminated against, so we often hear "English is more precise than French". Thank you for your video.
Well every language come with its pro and cons and english as well has some words which are difficult or less precise in french translation (like _bully_ or _sibling_). But every language have that (like the german _Schadenfreude_ or the japanese _umami_).
None is better than another and anyone telling you else just proved they knew nothing about both languages.
@shinigamileo8250 Siblings is frères et sœurs, or frère/sœur when you're referring to one whose gender is specified. I guess English doesn't have a word for aunt and uncle together, but that's not a problem. The same way sibling not existing isn't really an issue in French.
I believe what people mean is that English is more straightforward to some extent. Soyons honnêtes; beaucoup de québécois font pâle figure devant Rob. J'ai souvent encouragé des clients anglophones à s'exprimer en français en leur disant que s'ils ne maîtrisaient pas le genre en confondant le et la, plusieurs francophones (au Québec) avaient de la misère avec la grammaire: Ils "sontaient", il "a tombé" par terre, ce "que" je veux te parler, etc...
@@cryme5 Of course it's not an issue : if it really was, a word would've been created (or taken from another language) in that intent.
The only words "missing" are often words that describe something not really an issue to express somewhat else (like "_sibling_") or something not known and used (like "_umami_").
@@shinigamileo8250 i really hate that french dosen't have a gender neutral word like siblings. How am i supposed to call my non-binairy character like 😭 i love french but i still have beef with all the sexism in it
One word that English should definitely steal from French is "Débrouillard" and its derivations (the verb débrouiller, and the noun débrouillardise). It can be translated "good problem solver" with added independence and self-reliance.
And I guess "démerdard" and "démerder" too, when the situation requires it.
ressourceful
débrouillard = resourceful
se débrouiller = to get by
@@williambartlett4997 Oui, comme: "Est-ce-que tu parles francaise?", "je me debrouille" - but interestingly, je me - gets contracted to "jem".
Ah, le _système-D_
In Québec, flâner has a more negative connotation: it means to hang in a place without visible purpose. The most common way you'll encounter this word in Québec would be on warning signs saying something like "Interdiction de flâner" or "No loitering"
We Germans too have such a word (with negatve connotation): "herumlungern". But we do also have the (positive) "flanieren".
Ah you've imported the American idea that standing around doing nothing is somehow suspicious.
Well not really a word without an equivalent, as you pointed out "to loiter" means the same thing if I understand correctly. And @Yetaxa generally standing around doing nothing in a public space is suspicious, anywhere around the world, as most people who earn an honest living don't do so.
It's also a big part of the France definition of the word, but without the negative connotation. At least originally, it's also often used colloquially as English would use "to dawdle".
On the other hand, I can't think of a proper, full, France French translation for loitering, including the negative and often legal connotation. A neutral loitering would be the same as flâner, but I don't know enough English to be sure how negative or neutral loitering is in various English speaking countries.
@@LiraeNoir loitering is generally perceived to be a negative thing. It can be used as neutral or even with a hint positive romanticism (like flâner) in certain poetic situations, but that would have to be shaped by context.
My wife’s family, from the Chicago area, use the preposition “by,” like the French “chez.” Thus, “We are having dinner by you* tonight,” to mean “We are having dinner at your place….” My wife’s grandmother claimed to be of French descent, so I wonder if her ancestors didn’t just grab the nearest English preposition to fill the gap left by “chez” and fill it in with “by.”
*optionally, could said “youse” for the plural.
I think it might be German influence. It happens quite a bit in mid-western dialects, or so I've heard. The German word (bei) is used similarly to French 'chez', or Latin 'apud'
@@pawel198812 yeah, "bei" is used to describe things like homes of people, but you could also use "in", "im" or "auf" in different contexts.
I use 'by' the same way. Youse is lovely too
I found this episode fascinating as an Anglo Quebecr in Canada.
Thank-you you answered many questions about french and English language.
Cheers buddy
I had to fill in a form on-line recently where I had to tick yes or no to the question "Do you not have a mobile phone". I've still no idea which box I should have ticked.
No, I do have one!
Yes. 😉
That's a badly designed form. Written by someone who does not know how English grammar works...
I'd give better than even odds that they were a native speaker whose particular path of education and/or hobbies did not include the few disciplines that require one actually understand how English grammar actually works...
@@laurencefraser I only had aYes box or a No box to tick. Nowhere to write clarification.
@@linpulver2106 Were boxes mutually exclusive or could you have ticked both? ;)
I never realised the difference between savoir and connaître. Thank you so much
maintenant que tu sais, tu connais la différence !
@@HermelJaworskipurée je connaissais même pas la différence en tant que français 💀
@@planetary-rendez-vous
On utilise les deux verbes de manière intuitive.
On dira 'je connais l'Angleterre' mais jamais on ne dira 'je sais l'Angleterre'.
De la même manière on dira 'je sais parler l'anglais ou je sais que tu ne vas pas bien' mais jamais 'je connais parler l'anglais ou je connais que tu ne vas pas bien'
Savoir et connaître sont deux verbes qu'on emploie habituellement sans savoir vraiment expliquer leur différences. Juste par habitude de language.
@@nicolasosheridan7183 c'est vrai et j'ai maintenant oublié la différence entre ces deux verbes en relisant le commentaire 🤣🤣
Je ne m'étais jamais rendu compte non plus de cette différence entre les 2. Puis un jour un Belge a su me dire, et j'ai compris que le savoir c'était pas toujours pareil
Interesting!
Adding one word which also tells a lot culturally, but first a few personal comments.
1. Gourmandise, flâner, bouquiner. Interesting how it's all about leisure, pleasant times anx activities. English does not lack words for doing and making, but it lacks enjoyment it seems!
2. I do think you can use wander, or maybe even rumble, for flâner.
3. Another missing word : "la rentrée"!
Closest would be "back to school", but it's not a word. And also la rentrée can be used not only for school/uni, but work in general. Happy to develop if interested.
Cheers!
13:55 We SHOULD go that far! I miss thee/thou/thine. It’s so sad that I can’t “thou” my friends without looking weird.
im not even a native speaker and even i second this
this is PERFECT for my fantasy novel. one of the things i want to do to distinguish between different people groups is to have some people use more ‘norman’ and latinate features of english, and others use more of ‘anglish’ side of english
I love how many of the words refer to the activity of doing something just for the sake of it (gourmandise, flâner, bouquiner). I'm french and I never thought of them that way, I love it !
'Bouquiner' can also mean to browse through different books in a library or a book shop or a coffee shop that has books. Basically, just going through a few pages of a book or of several books. (French-speaking translator here).
On another note about 'si'. You can give more strength to your 'si' by saying 'mais si!' ('aber doch' in German).
Another fun word is fleuve . Fleuve in french is a river who finish in the ocean la Tamise. l'Amazone or la seine are des fleuves . It's a big difference.
yes! i was making english subtitles for a french show, and at one point the characters talk about something happening in un fleuve. I realize with surprise I don't know the word for it, so I look it up... and find out it's river.
In english, when you say "river" you can either mean the thing between two rocks that you see in the forest, or that big long thing that immediately goes into the sea or the ocean. It makes the picturing of a scene a bit harder x)
This reminds me of my stepmother who said she couldn't understand why English uses the word river for both. French is our native language by the way, Québec French to be more specific.
I give my full support to the Yorkshirefication of English, tha knows!
And if you tell that to the young people today, they won't believe you!
@@tomkerruish2982 It were less of a house and more of a hole in’t’ ground
As a french speaker, I like that English doesn't have tutoiement and vouvoiement
My family has long since adopted the German word "Doch" as an "infirmative". I hadn't heard the linguistic term before but I feel the richer for it.
"Doch" has a more complicated usage in German than that.
@@jlevan1996Doch has actually three very different usages. One could almost say it's three different words. But the informative usage is very simple and exactly like the French si.
Alternatively, you could use the English word "though", which is cognate with "doch"... no need to even learn a new word!
@@milkenjoyer14 Is the word "though" a complete sentence? The word "doch!" is.
🇨🇵 What a pleasure to hear you speak French! Your accent is very good, with some enjoyable english stylish touches here and there. One thing amazing for me, and which I've learnt from you, is the incredible amount (30%) of French words in the English language. In France we don't usually realise this, us who are always complaining about the increasing number of English words invading the French language!
About "gourmandise": it is the behaviour but also its object, and "une gourmandise" is also any delicious something (often used for a cake, a sweet, etc...) and also in a figurative way. So you can enjoy "une gourmandise" with "gourmandise" for "le goûter"... as it is the case by the way for this video. Merci Rob! 😊
The interesting thing about that 30%, is that in at least some cases it's the same word borrowed on multiple occasions over the centuries, but with different (if usually related) meanings.
Decades ago, 🇬🇧 magazine _Punch_ had a column, *Leçon en Franglais* . The one I remember was "Le cowboy achète les Lucky Strikes". Apparently, the proper French spelling is "cow-boy"
I usually read that 40 % of the english language comes from french...
2:40 seeing how english food tastes, i can't blame you.
Brutal lmao
😂😂😂 excellent point
Was looking for this 😁
But have you really tasted the food? As I doubt you'll do better than a Sunday roast or a meat pie, or a pasty...
@@Feelisegood Amateur.
Regarding the "si", you used to have it in English. If you're familiar with the four forms yes/yea/no/nay, the current "yes" is the old "yea" and the old "yes" would be the translation of "si".
As a french person this video is an absolute blast, especially since I am a translation student !
Thann you for making it it was really fun to see
One of the problems I find in most language tutorials is that immediately teach "tutoyer" right off the bat. So, I have to spend extra time trying to find the formal you forms. As for "to know", we do have "to be acquainted" with someone/something, and "to know" meaning to have deep knowledge about something. Now we tend you use "acquainted" with people. However, I can remember my grandparents differentiating between the two - "Do you really know that or are you just acquainted with it?"
also to know of someone or something which implies knowing no more than it's existence
most language tutorials are aimed to teach kids and they usually learn informal language first (unless they are Japanese I guess :)) so they can practise talk among themselves. Business language books should be better source of formal language.
@@mtarek2005 Of course, one can be 'intimately aquainted' with some person, place, or subject, just to confuse matters.
I was looking forward to this video and it did not disappoint! Probably my favourite so far, it illustrates so well how French culture is about enjoying life. As a word-obsessed nerd trying to teach my native French language to my boyfriend (Rob!), this one was really useful. Your videos have become part of our lunch routine! I recommend the newsletter to everyone who hasn’t signed up yet.
If you need another French Julie, 🙋🏻♀️
Great content. Merci! Here’s two words probably with no English equivalent in one word:
• Amener: Bring someone to a place.
• Emmener: Take someone with you from one place to another.
not to be confused with
*Apporter : Bring something to a place
* Emporter : Take something from one place to anohter
7:09 not the only meaning by the way ;)
17:00 we just add the word “of” to differentiate
Connaitre - To be familiar with. Makes it a little easier to explain to an English speaker in that way. So we do differentiate the types of knowledge in English, but "to know" is still used for both. We don't have a singular word for specifically having knowledge of a fact. So, arguably, that's the word we need. Not connaitre. But savoir. So bringing back "savvy" to popular use sounds like the best idea.
I'd argue that savvy is already in common use.
@@minuteman4199 Not in this context, no. Calling someone "Tech savvy," etc isn't exactly the extent I'm referring to.
Flaner, flaneur. We Dutch have our own take on that too. Yes, we also got it from the french. But our take on it is "flaneren". Meaning to walk about the town (usually in places like boulevards, parks and promenades) to watch others but also to be seen! So, in your nicest get up, hiking togs, gaudy dress up.
It's also in German: flanieren. Means the same as in French.
Perhaps the (obsolete) English verb "to promenade" fits here... or, perhaps not.
@@surlyogre1476 To me "to promenade" is walk to be seen, not so to watch. Except maybe for reactions. But that tells you that "to promenade" is to affect the observees. Maybe "flaner" is more of trying not to affect the observees. Observe others in their natural form not in the form how they react to the observer.
@@surlyogre1476It absolutely does. In Nice there is an avenue along the sea named La Promenade des Anglais.
On peut "se promener" sans but précis, mais aussi en ayant décidé d'une destination ou pour s'aérer. Alors qu'on "flâne" toujours sans but précis en se laissant guider par l'instant et les alentours, en prenant son temps.
I also like Tutoyer to reference being in “first name basis” with people.
Particularly with children. Here in America, at least there’s been an increase in the last decade or so to address young adults put in a position of supervision as “Mr./Ms. First name.” A good example is your child’s summer camp counselor. But, depending on how familiar you are with them, you might eventually just call them by their first name without the Mr./Ms. Essentially Tutoying them.
Absolutely, or even short versions of names/nicknames. I got offended in France that people I felt relaxed with insisted on using my full, formal name because it's like vouvoying me. But that's cultural: nicknames are for very close friends in France generally.
When I was teaching in an international college in England, my students, coming from all over the world, often called me "Dr Ken". A nice compromise between respect and familiarity, I think. (And yes, Ken is my first name, not my surname.)
@@lyntallon6325 Interestingly, and as I am sure you know, the French word for nickname is 'surnom', which is a 'faux ami'.
Honestly, the habbit of talking about 'first name' and 'last name' rather than 'personal name' and 'family name' (with additional terms as necessary) needs to be put out of everyone's misery. It just makes talking about Actual people's actual names (including most native English speakers named in the usual English Speaking Fashion) far more awkward and confusing than it should be.
Mr./Ms. First name is something that is used in the southern USA. I noticed it a lot when I lived in Florida.
Nice video 👍
And you forgot to say that before to be used for the "vouvoiement", "vous" is use to designate multiple people unlike "tu" to adresse to one person.
Could you do a video of untranslatable English words in French plz ?
You forgot the most important: Crapoter, which means ''to smoke but you don't inspire the smoke cuz you do it just for show''
Inspirer = Inhale.
To inspire the smoke:
Donner de l'inspiration à la fumée xD
Or because you don’t know how to really smoke 😅
@@Fantastic_Mr_Fox chuuteuh
Why not "bifler" too
@@edgelord6665 Hahahahaha
I have spoken French as my first foreign language for many years, but I feel a need to confess to not knowing your top three. A fascinating video - it felt good to know the other words.
Au contraire regarding “chez.” At least in British English you say “To yours.” Chez = “to” in this construction. “To Rob’s” also works. Just need to make the second word a possessive.
In some cases yes. But « to » translates the movement towards the destination. If you are chez le coiffeur, you’ve already arrived at the hairdresser’s. And if you want to analyze the use of colour symbolism chez Baudelaire or the sense of space chez Picasso, your best bet is probably to rephrase the whole sentence.
Or "At Rob's"?
@@CineMiamParisWhat about je vais chez le coiffeur?
Actually we have to do and to make in french. It's "faire" and "fabriquer". It just doesn't apply to food. So we say "Je fais un gâteau" instead of "Je fabrique un gâteau" for "I make a cake" but we say "Je fabrique une maison" for "I make a house". But anyway, thanks for this video, I'm glad you like my language ❤
I'm French, you have no idea how much I struggle when talking in English when I want to express something like the "si" in French when replying to something
As a francophone I confuse speaking and talking sometimes. And the use of the verb confuse